Paul McNab Teewah hang gliding

Flying in March 2021 at one of the most beautiful coastal soaring sites in the world, Teewah in the Queensland Sunshine Coast, in my sweet old Airborne Sting 175 XC. No excitement in this one (once launched!), just part of an afternoon of easy ridge soaring. Assisted at launch by our CFI, David Cookman. Highlights follow (more discussion of the conditions and site below):
• Takeoff
• Landing from 22.08
• From 5.42, passing above the launch with Kent Gosden in his red paraglider below, who is playing with top landing.
• From 7.54, good view south. Noosa Heads straight through the A-frame. Cooroy Mountain to the right (22km away), and Lake Cooroibah far right.
• From 10.30, view north. Double Island point too far to see at the top of the beach, and Lake Cootharaba to the left.
• At 11.22 Kent passes below on his way north.
• At 20.38 a sea eagle passes low below me from left to right and moves away south to the launch, and Kent. The eagle spent much of the afternoon passing above and below me.
The site is within the Great Sandy National Park and is operated by the Sunshine Coast Sports Aviators Club with the assistance of the Queensland National Parks. Contact the club before flying (sunshinecoasts.... It operates on south easterly breezes, and consists of about 40km of 600ft (average) height sand dunes. On the right breeze the entire 40km to Double Island Point in the north can be flown and heights 1000ft above the beach are usual. Immediately to the north, past Double Island Point, is another magnificent site for north easterlies, Rainbow Beach.
On this day the wind at launch was “off” by about 30 degrees to the south which resulted in mechanical turbulence across the launch platform and dropping of the right wing. Leading to the “pickups” you can see and a less common take-off turn to the south. It was necessary to wait for the right point in a gust to launch. Paraglider wings are usually above the surface turbulence on such days.