The Manilla XC Camp is over for another year. The Manilla XC Camp is an annual event held in northern NSW over the week including Australia day. All are welcome to fly XC in whatever direction they choose, with competition categories from beginner upwards. Unfortunately the event was marred by a fatal accident.

Briefing on launch (photo by Alex Boiko)

Of the flights logged to XContest during this year’s event, the longest was this 200km flight by Airie Merlin. There were also another 37 flights of over 100km.

This year four Canberra pilots took part. Grum Rose managed the second longest flight of day 3 before being boxed in by overdevelopment.

Grum in the air at the XC Camp
The first few days of the comp were hampered by storms and overdevelopment.

Alex Boiko struggled as a relatively inexperienced pilot in strong conditions, but still managed a PB flight of 20km. Launching after 5pm, he climbed to 1370m then went over the back of Mt. Borah. Sinking back down to 1000m (~500m AGL), he circled in zeroes for 20 minutes before connecting with a good thermal, climbing at between 1m/s and 5m/s for another 20 minutes, reaching his highest ever height of 2709m. Then followed a long glide north, landing in a lake (presumably dry?) at around 6:45pm.

Alex’s Landing Spot
Action at the west launch of Mt. Borah. Photo by Alex Boiko.
Action at the west launch of Mt. Borah. Photo by Alex Boiko.
Action at the west launch of Mt. Borah. Photo by Alex Boiko.
Action at the west launch of Mt. Borah. Photo by Alex Boiko.