Paragliding and Hang gliding at Mt. Spring
by Barry Oliver
Spring range has been used for paragliding and hangliding for over 10 years. You may not have seen us flying at Spring because we make virtually no noise, and no pollution. Our purpose is to launch with our wings on our back from Spring and fly as far across the country as we can by using thermals, which are rising packets of warm air. We try to catch the thermals just as the eagles with which we fly at Spring do. Pilots have flown up past Goulbourn and down past Tumut after launching from Spring.
If we land in your property, it hasn’t been necessarily by choice. If the thermals die out or we lack the skill to find them our wings will not keep us in the air and we are brought back to earth. We try to find a safe spot to land. We do our best to keep the landowners happy and have various protocols we apply such as avoiding crops, paddocks with horses etc. Powerlines are a big worry when flying cross country and probably represent the greatest risk for us when we are coming down.
Sometimes the thermals aren't around so we have to be happy just using the air that is being pushed up the face of Spring to soar along its ridge. If you’ve seen us maybe that’s where its been. Once we get into the sky and head off across the country we are often extremely difficult to spot. We become a speck in the sky.
Many people see our sport as risky. Given current technology and pilot qualification requirements our sport has about the same risk as general aviation. So next time you are flying think that you are taking about the same risks as we are.
We need a reasonably high launch so we can increase our chances of being able to find the rising air. We also need to be able to launch into the wind and have a safe landing option. In Canberra the main wind is westerly. Spring range provides us with one of the only sites in the area where we can launch and have a safe landing area if we don’t catch a thermal.
If wind turbines are built on Spring range it will result in the loss of our main cross-country launch site in the Canberra area. Its not as if we can easily go somewhere else, there aren't any other places with the height and without powerlines or other things stopping us launching. Spring range is unique for us. If the turbines go ahead it would mean virtually the end of the sport in Canberra, which is represented by about 100 people and supports at least one paragliding school. This doesn't include the numerous visiting pilots who regularly come from overseas and interstate to fly from Spring.
Our other main site is at Lake George which is also on the wind-turbine hit list. This site is an easterly site but its not often the wind blows from the east. The site isn't really high enough to get thermals so we have to be happy just soaring along the ridge. We also have a site up near Collector but the easterly conditions aren't sufficiently regular to make this site as popular as Lake George or Spring. There are a couple of other sites around but because of various restrictions (direction, height, powerlines, airspace, trees, access etc), and residential sprawl they aren't or can't be used. Spring and Lake George are really our main flying sites. The loss of either would spell the end of our sport in Canberra.