Hi everyone,
I hope you are all well.
I've posted some pictures of my local flying sites here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/barryoliver/A few details:
Canberra is Australia's Capital City, it lies about 300k southwest of Sydney and about 600k north of Melbourne.
Population is about 300,000. The main employer is the Commonwealth Government. I work at the Australian National University (ANU) as a Professor of Finance.
The ANU has about 5,000 students across a campus of about 145 hectares of land right next to the city centre.
We have 4 close flying sites:
Spring Hill about 20minutes drive west. Takes a westerly wind and is a soaring thermal site. The longest paragliding flight from here is about 105k.
Lake George- Geary's Gap about 20 minutes drive north. Takes an easterly wind and is more a soaring site. It is an escarpment along the edge of a waterless natural lake. The last time there was any water in it was about 15 years ago. Its possible to fly XC from here but over the back of the hill is 3500' airspace (launch is about 2400'). It is possible to go north where airspace is 5500' which helps. Maximum XC from here is about 100k.
Pig Hill about 20 minutes drive south west. Takes easterly wind and is only a thermal site however some great evening glass-offs are available.
Lanyon about 20minutes south. Takes a westerly wind and is only a thermic site- least popular but getting increasing interest.
Stanwell Park is a beautiful coastal site about 3hrs drive from Canberra. Stanwell is about 1hr south of Sydney. With right conditions its possible to fly up to about 50k along the coastline which is dotted with secluded sandy beaches (a hard walk out if you land there!).
Another picture is of Beechmont near the Gold Coast about 1hr drive south of Brisbane and about 800klm north of Sydney. Here flights of hundreds of k have been achieved. I recently competed in the Canungra PG competition which used this site quite a few times.
We have many other sites within a few hours drive of Canberra, some of the more popular, although a bit further away: Bright- about 5hrs drive and Manilla- about 7hrs drive.
We have established a great website that has wind speed and direction on three of our sites:
http://www.acthpa.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=21&Itemid=32I can sit in my office and check the wind and when its flyable I can be flying within 30mins of leaving my office- am I lucky or what?
Regards,
Barry Oliver
Canberra Australia