By Rick Agnew
“Some say that he is terrified by the ground, that he has no understanding of clouds and that he just stares off into the distance and whispers to the wind. All we know is he’s called the ‘The Wave Pilot’.”
Canberra Gliding Club’s annual wave camp, held in September 2026 at Bunyan airfield 12km north of Cooma, NSW, was a great success.
The official start of this year’s Wave Camp was Saturday 19 September through to Sunday 27 September. Drew McKinnie, the Canberra Gliding Club’s and GA Safety Officer, did a marvellous job as camp administration, ‘herding cats’ and working together with some of the Club’s instructors, tuggies and duty pilots to make things happen. Morning briefings were followed by flying. Those that stayed in the club house told epic tales, sampled ‘stuff’ and generally had, by all accounts, a great time.
Drew was pretty wacked by the end of the camp and deserves full credit for also organising the wave for the camp. In the past, it has become known as more of a ‘ripple’ camp. But, after I sacrificed my glider to the Wave Gods a year plus ago by taking out @$#@$^ kangaroos on late final after a wave flight, those Wave Gods were smiling on us this time.
You can see the flight at weglide.org/flight/1240352
Wave Is On!
Saturday’s weather prediction was fairly ho hum, and SkySight’s was the same. However, conditions were far better than predicted, and looking north from Bunyan airfield showed that wave was on! Sort of like the scramble bell going off at Biggin Hill airfield, pilots raced around for a launch.
Matthew Atkinson in his JS3 TJ 18m was rearing to go and had a great flight of 273km at 84 kph topping out at 18,992ft with a height gain of 15,121ft, which turned out to be the Alan Armstead trophy flight – best height gain of the wave camp. Matthew flew from Bunyan up past Bredbo, traditionally the strongest and local high point in the ‘home’ valley wave system, up to the northern boundary of Michelago. He then hopped forward via Adaminaby, over Lake Eucumbene to the northern point of Lake Jindabyne returning more or less the same way back to Bunyan, taking a tad over 3 1/2 hours. It was a great flight, and I was very, very jealous.
John Orton was next off in his ASG 29-18m. After gaining height in the local valley area, he likewise went north to Michelago and back and ventured out towards Adaminaby, north of Cooma airport, and back to Bunyan doing 189km at 63 kph reaching 18,099ft with a height gain of 12,552ft in just over 3 hours flying.
Paul Tridgell and I, after a lengthy rigging – that is, fluffing around – eventually self-launched just when the wave system paused. Well, that’s the excuse I’m going with. We did a shake-down thermal flight of 67km at 75 kph while monitoring engine stats and decided that, with slipping belts, we should come back, land and tighten them. Subsequently, Paul solo self-launched to test his glider’s engine, which proved all was OK for the upcoming days’ flights. Steve Grzeskowiak went for a local flight in his shared LS1-f.
Too Blue
Sunday’s weather – BLUE. Arrrrrgh, no clouds, no wave clouds, sob sob… This is going to sort the sheep from the goats etc etc.
SkySight predicts that wave is on… Wind is coming from the correct direction – but finding it – hmmm. Well, the eyes are on me… the one who bangs on about wave all the time. I’d better put my money where my mouth is, so to speak. Game on… no pressure – much.
Paul and I self-launched in Paul’s beautiful DG 1001m 20m. We elected to gain height over the airfield and motor towards the primary – yes, the world’s longest motoring into wind – and high self-launch towards ‘Agnew’s Elevator’, a place I know extremely well. If wave is on, it will be there. Pity that there wasn’t a hint of cloud as an indicator of wave/lift. If I had SkySight I may have been able to use that instead of using 40 plus years of local knowledge and sweating and mumbling to myself. Yes, the wave Gods were smiling upon us and eventually we contacted wave. It wasn’t easy, even for me.
Cold Feet
The high point was 23,412ft with a flight time of 7hrs 45mins! SeeYou stated a distance of 915.3km… If I had known that, I would have stayed up and made it a round 1,000km.
I had a blast, but was very, very tired. I must be getting old. In days of yore, an 8hr flight was nothing…
On this epic flight, Paul was mumbling that his feet were frozen and with that I felt (not sniffed) his long, long legs and feet being draped over on top of my shoulders from his reclined seat in the back. Yes, he was basking in the sun. Apparently, thawing his feet out this way worked. I was and am still a tad amazed that he managed to get his feet and legs up into that position while still strapped in! All I could think about was the ATSB report stating, if we speared in, why was the P2’s feet in that position?
In retrospect, it was a brilliant flight – a culmination of years and years of local and international wave flying, looking at the topography and remembering from the past, exactly where in this location the wave would be – and flying it. Oh, how I wished for the wave clouds to mark the super highway to zip up and down marking where the lift would be. Such is life!
Paul Tridgell in the rear seat with Rick Agnew in the front.
Others that flew that day included:
Steve Grzeskowiak flew 162km @ 86kph
Matthew Atkinson 170km @ 60kph
Drew McKinnie 141km @ 59kph
Chris Thorne 106km @ 74kph
Rod Ferrier and Borris 57km @ 36kph
John Orton 41km @55 kph
Rhys Dyer 27km @ 63kph
Amos Shapira 15km @83kph
Ups and Downs
Monday 21st, Tuesday 22nd and Wednesday 23rd September brought no flights. I was knackered from Sunday’s near 8hr flight of intense concentration, so I was rather glad.
Thursday 24 September saw seven local flights… basically local thermally. It was great to see Mike Hardy flying in the Mosquito he shared with his son.
On Friday 25 September, Paul Jacobsohn and Ian Steventon in their Duo Discus flew two flights of 196km @ 67 kph, utilising thermals and finding the primary wave flying west along Lake Jindabyne and slightly south of the Alpine Way and back to Bunyan.
Saturday 26 September saw five flights – all thermal with a smidge of wave with John Orton in his ASG 29-18m doing 140km @ 42 kph as the best out of Bunyan for the day.
The Who’s Who of Wave Camp 26
Wave Camp Director / Co-ordinator was Drew McKinnie, assisted by John Young, Keith Ayotte and others.
Tuggies were Chris Thorne, Alan Wilson, Peter Deneo and Dave McIlroy.
Duty Pilots included Bakari Sammir, Kieth Ayotte, Steve Grzeskowiak and Rick Agnew.
Among the participating pilots were Matthew Atkinson, Ian Steventon, Rod Ferrier, Boris Jovanovic, Drew McKinnie, Paul Jacobsohn and Steve Grzeskowiak.
Other pilots, listed here with their aircraft, were Rhys Dyer, Std Cirrus; John Orton, ASG 29-18m; Mike Hardy, Mosquito; Jordy van den Hark, SZD Puchacz; Greg Schmidt, SZD Puchacz; Drew McKinnie, ASW 20; Amos Shapira, DG 303; Paul Tridgell and Rick Agnew, DG 1001m 20m; and Chris Thorne Ventus cT 15m.
Rule No. 1 – ‘You have to be there’
My aviator friends and I hope to see you at next year’s wave camp. Meanwhile fly high, fly fast, fly long and fly safely.
