By Melysha Turnbull
In the first week of December, 12 women flew in the inaugural Women’s Race Week at Narromine.
Race Week was open to women who had completed a 300km cross-country flight. From intermediate pilots to world championship pilots, the event was a mixture of mentoring and race practice. I have half a mind to avoid the word ‘race’ as some find it off-putting, but hopefully this article will show that it was about flying tasks with friends. Sophie Curio and Jenny Thompson set Distance Handicap Tasks (DHT), the new format for the NSW State Championships, each day. The lower performance gliders launched first, ahead of the ASG29s and Ventus 2a at the back.
Windy Start
On the Practice Day, we had 20kt wind on the ground, while winds over 60kt were blowing up high. Sophie had time to explore into sheer wave in her LS4. She sat above the clouds at 17,000ft with a 62kt headwind, getting chilly while she waited for me on a lead and follow. Meanwhile Jenny in dark mode, below the clouds, swept past us, setting the record straight that this week would be an exhibition of her speed, punctuated by absolute silence over the radio.
The following day was a no-fly day due to the wind and clouds. Ailsa McMillan entertained us with seminars about flying in gaggles, competition and so on. I learned about the jellyfish and sharks. The jellyfish are the slow racers out front that indicate the thermals to the sharks, who hunt them down and pass them.
I took an interest in airworthiness (for the first time) - in particular, taking apart, cleaning, greasing and reassembling the undercarriage of Narromine’s Discus B to make it easier to retract with my feminine biceps.
Practising gaggle flying.
The first day saw more gliders rigged and taking to the sky in still windy and blue conditions. In fact, the rest of the week was blue. Leonie Furze made a standout Club Class performance flying her Discus B down to Forbes. The next day saw us doing a cat’s cradle out to Nyngan, back to Warren, down to Albert Silo and home.
As on most days, I started first. I felt the flock press down on me just south of Nevertire on the way to Albert Silo as five of us shared a thermal. I think lots of pilots enjoyed this task as they started to feel match fit. Daniela Helbig cracked the 100kph mark – and didn’t look back for the rest of the week, leading into a successful first solo competition at the NSW State Championships.
The third day saw us heading up towards the outskirts of the dreaded Macquarie Marshes at Buckinguy Homestead. Ask Beryl about the wild boars that will leave just your boots, the 40C-plus heat and the empty homesteads for a scary story to replay in your mind as you overfly.
I enjoyed myself immensely on this task, as the early start was fortuitous. I was finding an 8kt lift in the blue all alone, about 80km from the start while listening to the sharks chatter about struggling in weak lift back at Narromine. I was caught at Nevertire, but this time we were on our way home to Narromine. Ailsa and Sophie helped me core their final climb and headed on final glide. I took one more thermal...
Melysha, Sophie, Leonie, and Lou relaxing after a day of flying.
Katie and Allan Barnes also attended the event. Allan generously provided coaching flights to Dominique Brassier, Julie Lentle and Katie. Dominique was especially delighted and put lessons learned into all subsequent flights, reaching goals of increasing difficulty she set herself for each flight using the WeGlide scoring system.
Off to NSW Championships
On the last day, Kerrie Claffey, Jo Davis and Leonie Furze flew their gliders to Temora for the NSW State Champs. The radio chatter of the party heading south was very entertaining as Leonie made two low saves over airfields, after which Kerrie schooled her on height bands over the radio. We later found out Jo thought it better to stay silent and not admit she was at 1,6000ft. I flew with water for the first time and headed off to another outpost on the outskirts of the Macquarie Marshes. The women logged nearly 12,000km over the week.
A huge thank you to Jenny Thompson for spearheading this event. Thank you to Sophie Curio for all the mentorship, lead and follows, weather briefings and task setting. Thank you to Allan Barnes for the coaching flights. Thank you to Beryl and Arnie for hosting us at Narromine. Thanks also to Gliding Australia for providing support to enable the event to go ahead, and to NSW Gliding for supporting the NSW women.
We hope more women join us next year and from further parts of the country. In the meantime, we would also love to hold a Silver Badge camp for women starting out on their cross-country journey. Please reach out to female pilots in your club who are on the cusp of cross-country glory, ensuring we have enough numbers to host a Silver Badge week in the future.
Sophie Curio climbed in wave above the cumulus.
