Heading photo, Photo by Mark Griffin

On Sunday 1 February the weather god finally delivered the goods, at least for Neil Burns and myself on a flight out of Benalla in the Nimbus 3DT GAA. On VMFG's visits to Porepunkah and Mt Beauty I have always had the aim of completing a 500km flight in the mountains with turn points at Mt Kosciusko and Mt Buller, albeit that the probability of obtaining the necessary weather either early in the season at Porepunkah or late in the season at Mt Beauty was slight.

Neil and I went to Benalla late in January for some variety flying and hoping for big flights out on the plains or possibly records. The weather systems did not produce anything much different than had been happening from Christmas onwards.

However the first day of February had high temperatures forecast for Benalla, at around 36 deg C. The previous days had been OK but not exceptional on the plains and so this day with higher temperatures might do the trick for a brilliant plains flying day. Nevertheless the locals declared intentions of flying into the mountains to Mt Kosciusko, Mt Buller, Euroa and return. Out on the launch grid a heavy cirrus band was evident north of Benalla and possibly moving into the area. By resting against a fixed object and keeping one's head still one could carefully observe the movement of some features in the cirrus cloud past nearby tall fixed objects, car radio aerials, etc. This tracking of the cirrus showed the movement to be well north of Benalla and from west to east at that northerly latitude which was OK, and confirmed the idea that the east and southern areas from Benalla across the mountains would be best.

Launching late we slowly (for us!) worked our way to Mt Buffalo expecting some of the cu to produce great climbs. but this was not the case as the cu still had somewhat fractured bases. Attaining 8,000 feet and hearing Lisa Trotter and others in the GCV squadron well ahead at the Dartmouth Dam east of Mt Bogong, cloudbase was still above us and better conditions beckoned to the east over Mt Beauty.

Superior piloting was applied to getting the first quality climb which quickly took us to Mt Beauty and Mt Bogong at 10,000ft. This enabled us to go directly over Dartmouth Dam to Mt Kosciusko rather than having to take the usual longer more northern route.

Arriving in the Kosciusko area we attained 11,000ft and had a view across the Great Dividing Ranges perhaps as good as we will ever see, as visibility into the distance was superb. The view over the b. The view over the high terrain of the Snowy Mountains to the north east was tantalising with good looking cumulus having a nice spacing. It was thrilling as all the places of my childhood holidaying in the Snowy's were set out below and around.

The conditions encouraged us to see how far we could reasonably go to the NE, holding 10,000ft plus, and sometimes running at 12,000ft. Bit by bit Lake Eucumbene came closer and the last reasonable cu enabled us to climb and then glide to the Lake Eucumbene dam wall and turn. All the time we were more than 5,000 feet above the terrain and had ways out to the west, for example to Khancoban airstrip.

We then ran back to the west-south-west having to track via Mt Benambra north of the Dartmouth Dam to stay with the cumulus. Back at Mt Bogong a powerful hand reached down from the sky and plucked us up with the vario deciding to go off the clock and the averager showing 13 knots to 12,500ft. At this height the Bogong High Plains appear ... well, ... flat, and Mt Feathertop more like a substantial hill than a mountain. The crumpled minor ridges off major ridges and the various valleys looked more like the flattened representation of a map maker.

We raced towards Mt Buller and nearing it there were two cloud lines of stepping stones one could take. The better one lay to the south and we took this, eventually reaching Jamieson on the upstream reaches of Lake Eildon. Enviou Lake Eildon. Enviously we could see our way safely down to Gippsland with good clouds right to the cloud fronds of the incoming southern marine airmass. But we were too late in the day to try this possibility.

Instead we turned for Euroa Airstrip with Lake Eildon under our left wing and showing beautiful patterns on the water due to the wind and the waves from boats, all illuminated in exquisite detail by the sun's reflection off the water. An approaching high cloud band from the west was coming closer and the shadow cast on the ground by the cloud band was moving east at a fast rate due to the movement of the cloud band and accentuated by the steady movement of the sun as it fell in the west.

The GCV squadron was nearing home for 525km flights and the radio revealed all were excited by such marvellous flying.

For us a long steady glide onto the Strathbogie Ranges ensued and with 7,000 feet feeling decidedly low, we climbed back to 10,000 feet and flew to the turn at Euroa. From there we final glided to Benalla and arrived with enough height to pass the aerodrome by and put on a short extra detour to Glenrowan (almost) prior to landing.

A champagne day for us with around 665km covered.

The next day we met with Ingo Renner at Tocumwal. The previous day on Sunday he too had seen the cirrus problem early and so elected to avoid this by flying his Discus to the south-east over Benalla. He then flew deepa. He then flew deep into the mountains tracking to the east of Mt Bulla and then straight down at 12,000 feet towards Gippsland to the edge of the cloud fronds on the interface with the southern marine airmass. Satisfied he flew home, and all this on one of his days off from instructing. Hmmm. ...

Ingo. a fellow with around 30.000 hours gliding who still goes flying gliders for recreation on his days off from gliding instructing work!! We admit we can't match him.