Australia XC tour 2012 - January 12 - 21 (XC £575 or XC &SIV £975)

Thanks for your interest in Manilla. This is going o be a fantastic flying trip and is planned to go from around the 12th to 21 January.

We fly in Manilla which is home of the world Championship and is truly a great place to fly, due to the vast open flatlands, reliable weather and good climbs to high bases. The take off at Mount Bora is quite low but the wind and thermals enable you to get away easily and do respectable XC's in all directions.

The plan would be to collect a 4x4 car on the 10th and head to Stanwell park to give a talk that night. Then to head up to Manilla on the 11th to arrive with good old Vic & Tom that evening, ready for the first XC briefing at 9am on the 12th. We would then fly XC for the next 10 days, maximising the conditions and flying as far as possible each day, finishing on the evening of the 21st.

From there, those of you doing the SIV, would head to lake St Clair and set up camp. We would have the first briefing with the pilots on the evening prior to each course, (6pm on the 22nd), to give a safety flight briefing and get ready for an early start the following day. We would then tow aprox 3 flights to 700-1000m, per student per day, with an extra/bed weather day on day 4.

I appreciate that it is a big flight and people may want to do their own thing prior to the flying trip. Whether it is just getting over jet lag, visiting family, or site seeing, so to start, we would meet in Sydney on the 11th and drive up to Manilla to start the flying on the 12th.

We would stay at the Royal Hotel in the centre of town, which is very friendly, with basic B&B and Wifi, for the whole ten days, meeting in the mornings to discuss the day and plan retrieve etc. We would then head for the take off for around 10:30- 11am to launch at 11.30-12pm. We would then fly as far as possible together and, once retrieved will decide to either come home or return to launch for another flight, mind you everyone will exhausted from the BIG day that all we will want to do is head back for a beer. If any pilots bomb out shortly after launch then the retrieve could drive down and pick-up to enable you to re-fly and catch up. The evening are long and very relaxing, which will give us chance to de-brief the flight and get ready for the next day.

The course fee is £575 for the ten days, but that does not include the transport. In the past the transport and retrieve prices have changed so much that we can not include it into the budget. Last year we paid and extra £200 for the car hire, plus shared fuel. We would all share the cost of vehicle hire and also driver hire on some big days where we all want to fly. There are a group of locals who know the area and are perfect drivers. We would just contract one, on a day to day basis, to drive for us on the big days.

I will be getting back to you with prices and logistics of car hire very soon.

I have booked my flights that arrive into Sydney at 09:30 on the 10th January and departing at 22:00 on the evening of the 4th February, should you wish to join me for the travelling part to and from Manilla.

Take care and keep in touch for more information by emailing me click here.

Take care and safe flying

Jocky