By : Frank Fontyne

Before moving to Wodonga I lived in Mandurah, south of Perth. Good hang gliding locations were three to four hours drive away, and as I had a lot of other commitments (windsurfing, wavejumping, relationship) I didn't get much opportunity to fly. I contemplated getting a 2-seater trike, but was a little apprehensive about the cost and unsure if my fiancée would be game enough to come with me anyway.

After moving to Wodonga, flying locations were closer by: Mt Buffalo 1½ hours, Mystic 1 hours and Conargo (towing) 2 hours. I did some great flying at these sites, but became frustrated by the number of marginal days., or days with unsafe conditions.

To reduce the amount of frustration and improve on my flying hours I decided to buy my Explorer powered harness from Airtime Products in autumn 1998. I had a little difficulty learning to fly with the motor on my Blitz 146, as this glider was a little small for the added weight of the motor (20-25kg including fuel). The added weight increased the stall speed, so in nil wind (which we get a lot of here) my Reeboks had a hard time keeping up - someone suggested Nikes. Thermalling was also a little more difficult due to much earlier tip stalling.

Earlier this year I replaced my trusty Blitz with a SX6. This has turned out to be a great combination with the motor. For my weight it's a little big for flying without the motor, but I end up flying with the motor most of the time anyway. The larger size makes nil wind take offs and landings much easier, as well as thermalling. Of course, rough air handling is traded off.

With two five litre fuel tanks the motor can give me more than three hours flying time in nil lift conditions. If the landing conditions change at the last second (eg thermal generated tailwind) I can just do a fly by. That probably saved my neck once. I can take off from flat paddocks, and I have even taken off uphill. I get about three times more flying hours than I used to get without the motor.

There are of course some disadvantages. The added weight attached to your body can increase injury in case of a severe nose in. There is a slightly longer set-up time with more complexity. You have to have a big enough car to carry the motor harness. You have to carry fuel and make sure no petrol fumes end up in the car. The engine noise is annoying, but it's two meters behind you and in the air-stream so you kind of fly away from it.

Climb rate is about 250ft/min, so not fantastic but in most cases sufficient. I have had some mechanical problems, but Airtime Products have looked after me with all of these. Mid-air restarting is possible with the pull cord, but is not that easy. Airtime Products are testing an electric start at the moment.

Scenic flying is what I enjoy most of all, and I have done some great flying with the motor as you can see from the photos. Some of my best flights have been Mt Buffalo, Mt Bogong over snow, Mt Beauty to Mt Bogong to Mt Buffalo, Fraser Island, Rainbow Breach, Teewah, Noosa, The Rock near Wagga, and Glenrowan to Porepunkah to Mt Buffalo.

I love flying around Mt Buffalo for the great scenery. When I took the photo shown, I had flown up from the Porepunkah airstrip. There was a small cu sitting over the Mt Buffalo Gorge. It stayed there most of the time, but changed size and shape regularly. I motored up to the bottom of the gorge, where the waterfall was flowing strongly. There was strong lift from the cu, and with the motor off I raced up past the hang gliding ramp and the tourist look-outs. Cloudbase was only about 1,000 feet over the gorge, so I started to head out of the lift of this growing monster. I found that even though I had worked my way over to the side of the cu, I was still in weak life. I was upwind from the cloud and it looked like the wind was going up its side - you beauty! I started working my way up the side, but slowly the life reduced to nothing. I was now at about 6,500 feet and getting a bit cold, but was enjoying the awesome view so pulled the motor back on I than had some fun going in and out of the clear areas between large layers of clouds, and shot the photo while flying above a few smaller cu's. Other pilots launching off Mt Buffalo only had a sleddy straight down - bad timing I guess. After landing back at Porepunkah I was called a cheat for using the motor, but I knew who had had the best flight of the day!

The flight over Mt Bogong was done in September this year. I took off from Mt Beauty airstrip and started to use small thermals, getting high very quickly. The air got rough due to light rotor when I made my way over to the eastern side of the Kiewa Valley. From there it was a small hop tailwind over to Bongon, getting rougher as I went. Clouds were forming rapidly and cloudbase was only just above the summit. One cloud was parked almost permanently over the summit, and thus I couldn't fly over the summit this time. However, I got close and took some photos. Great view of Falls Greek, Rockey Valley dam and the snow on the high plains, but it got too rough for my liking. I pulled some speed on the SX and made my way back over to Mt Beauty.

Last summer's flight from Rainbow Beach to Fraser Island was also very memorable. A perfect day with a light breeze, I wanted to make it to the lakes and sand dunes so I flew with two tanks (and a GPS to help with fuel planning). The water-crossing to the island wasn't far, and I made sure I had plenty of height to glide to either side in the event of a motor failure. The scenery was great, and just got better as I progressed up the island. The lakes were beautiful and I was tempted to land by the side of one of them where there seemed to be room, but I was concerned about getting out of there in the event of a mishap. On the way back I had some fun flying over the clouds. The motor had to be used all the time due to lack of lift. There was a 10 knot wind, 30 off headwind. Flight duration was over three hours all up, and I still had half a tank of fuel left. There were about a dozen guys sitting at Rainbow Beach that couldn't fly due to the crossed wind. Yep, these motors can be very useful!

The photo of the halo was taken during a flight from Teewah to Noosa and over the Noosa National Park. Cloudbase always seems to be very low in this part of the world. I flew over the eastern beaches and Hell's Gate, then headed back over to Noosa. After having a good look around I headed to Teewah in the straight line (over the water but with enough height to make land in case of a motor problem). I took the halo photo flying over some cloud out over the water.

Lake Hume is a 20 minute drive from where I live. The lake has not been full for a new years and there is plenty of space for tasking off and landing. Scenery is pretty good with the mountains in the background. Soon I'm planning to fly from Lake Hume to Wodonga, around the control zone.

Next year I plan to fly the Burketown Morning Glories. Also on my wish list are the Bright cliffs and Ayers Rock - maybe these can be combined in one trip. More locally, the Great Ocean Road are beckons.

One problem I have encountered is that there are not many of these powered harnesses around. Certainly not near where I live that I know of. I rely on a paramotor friend, friends from Melbourne with powered harnesses, or other non-flying friends to come along, So if anyone lives near Wodonga, Wangaratta, Bright, etc with a powered harness, or if anyone wants a flying buddy when flying in this area, please send me an email
Frank.Fontyne@Uncletobys.com.au

Happy motoring!

Articles reproduced from Gliding Sky Sailor