Alex Cuddy writes:

Saturday morning we got a phone call from friends in Canberra
saying the hang gliding conditions were looking epic. We chose a flying site
15km West from Yass, and our goal for the day was to fly back to the coast and
land on the beach near Wollongong. The only catch is the wind might pick up and
get too windy.

I and two of my friends from Stanwell Park were all keen to fly. We loaded up
our gear in Kathryn's car and started our three hour drive there in hopes that
the wind wouldn't pick up and we would get great flights. On our drive there
conditions were only looking better with nice clouds. The car was filling with
good energy.

We met up with the Canberra boys Dave, Trent, John, and Andrew in Yass and
followed them to the take-off hill. We all set up our hang gliders, got our
chase crew sorted, and then one by one we put our gear on and launched.

It was difficult conditions at takeoff, out of eight pilots that flew that day
only Trent and I got enough altitude to go “cross country” towards the goal of
the beach 200km away. 40Km later Trent left some weak lift in hopes of finding
better ahead but with no luck he landed at a small airfield and waited for his
chase crew to pick him up.

 I was on my own from there and out of radio reach of my chase crew and
conditions looked like they were getting weak as it was getting late in the day.
But conditions held and I found great thermals that were so smooth. I was
getting excited about making the goal of the day and landing on the beach,
something no one has ever done before!

As I was approaching Moss Vale and the sun was getting lower in the sky (6 PM)
and I wasn't finding any lift. Hopeful, I searched around but had no luck,
landed just out side of Moss Vale. As I packed up many people stopped to make
sure I was OK and had someone coming to pick me up. I finished packing up my
wing and walked into town to grab a bite of food while waiting for my crew to
pick me up. The 161 km flight was amazing with beautiful scenery the whole way.
I ended up landing only 40km from our goal of the beach. You can bet that the
next time conditions are looking good, we're going to be back, giving it another
go!!