Sunday, February 3, 2008

Sittin' around in Manilla

Click for larger image

This morning the Killarney skies were overcast & drizzly. David & I decided to head South to Manilla, the site of last year’s worlds championship comp and Ewa’s famous CB tour. The drive took about four hours & we drove through many small towns with names like Barraba, Bingara, and Texas. The drive went quickly and as we proceeded South the weather got progressively more threatening looking. We saw kangaroos, wallabies, fox, and goannas and a host of tropical birds as we travelled the ranches along the road.
We pulled into the encampment at Manilla around 2pm. The weather was as you see it in the photo, above. The hill is obvious, with a couple of launches visible from the road. Manilla is Godfrey Wenness’ pet project. He’s spent many months and many $$ to turn this site into a world class flying site. Mt. Borah has four launches, all with Astroturf surfaces. The West launch and the East launch are as large, or larger than a basketball court. We drove to the top of the hill (the peak is 350 meters above the valley floor) and did a tour of the 4 launches. There are expansive setup areas adjacent to each launch. The launches, in some spots, are shallow but all look very good.

We have rented a cabin from Godfrey and enjoyed a great night’s sleep last night. Today (Mon.) is overcast with a forecast of rain & isolated T-Storms for the next few days. . . it appears the wx has finally caught up with us. We hope to get some flying here, this week, when the wx allows. Another option is to head to Newcastle & join up with James T. to fly some coastal sites.

Tim

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