A couple of great flights today. Started at 11am from the gut and mooched around the front of the peak for 1/2 an hour or so, climbing to 1800′ but not getting inspired to drop over the back as the route over Erin just wasn’t working well. A cloud started forming over Mick Smalls hill so committed myself and headed out to it. It wasn’t working fast but well enough to start the journey south on, slowly drifting down the river topping out at 2800′ then a gorgeous bounce from cloud to cloud down the river until I was about level with Kauahei and just couldn’t find anything that was working eventually landing just south of Patangata. The hitching took a while but once I got the first ride I headed homeward quickly and rang Ricky and Euan as I reached Havelock North and they had just dropped a car at the landing paddock and were keen to go up and have a look. I was excited to see the convergence line set up so well and was keen for another jaunt.

Down into the gut again and once launched I realised that the convergence had moved to right where I was as I pointed myself straight out and topped out at 2000′ before doing my first turn. Yeehah – turning is for wimps! A few turns were thrown in just to get me topped up and then off to the south I went. Convergence flying is pretty active and bolshy with the thermals getting pushed about and needing a fair bit of active piloting but very enjoyable once you get your head around it all. Follow the long black shadow on the ground moving to the edge when visibility becomes a problem and moving back underneath when the sink alarm gets too annoying! It was nice to have cloudbase below 3500′ so running underneath the corner of the TMA was a non issue. Unfortunately all good things come to an end and I dropped off the end of the convergence line just south of Lake Poukawa and headed toward a good looking cloud that didn’t play the game so pointed myself toward the main road just south of Te Aute college and found a bit of light lift that I tried to hold on to with limited success and just when I thought it had beaten me it turned on and took me back to 2200′. Perhaps I should have stayed on that line and continued behind the forest on Argyll road where little puffs were appearing but I elected to try and get under a stronger looking street to the East of Otane. One more climb and then a nice long glide to Racecourse road on the north side of Waipawa. Here the scariest part of the flight occurred as I turned into wind and flew over the power lines to settle myself on a large open paddock and looked up to see a ~2m diameter of swirling grass moving toward me – yikes! I slowed things down a bit and waited then was tossed skyward about 15 meters and was thankful to find that the wing remained intact. The air behind it was turbulent and unpleasant but I sank through it all and landed safely. A call to Ricky and he was on his way south to pick both Euan and myself up. I walked out to the main rd and started to hitch north hoping to save Ricky the extra journey but just as a car stopped to pick me up Ricky arrived. Euan was back at Poukawa but unfortunately we ran out of petrol about 1/2km before we got to him. A phone call home got some petrol on its way and the day ended without further drama.