SAFA Skysailor Magazine

10 SKY SAILOR March | April 2023 Forbes Flatlands – 18 to 26 January 2023 by Vicki Cain Forbes 2023 didn’t disappoint! We arrived in Forbes to a cracker looking sky. The official practice day was a hot 36ºC and only a few pilots chose to fly before the gust front arrived late afternoon and cooled things down. We had set the dates for this year’s comp later than usual to entice international participation. In hindsight, this was a stroke of luck, as most of Forbes was under water with widespread flooding during November and December 2022. Luckily, Bill’s paddock and the hangar with three Dragonflys was spared from the rising water. The ground dried out surprisingly fast, and by the time Steve McCarthy arrived a couple of weeks before the comp to prep the paddock and service the Dragonflys, the ground was already starting to crack! The long grass made for slow mowing and Steve spent 13 hours on the tractor to give us a huge, clear launch arena. The later dates didn’t entice the internation- al pilots as we had hoped, so with only a small group of 30 pilots we were again using the Forbes Aeroclub as our headquarters. We set the briefings time later, at 11am, so everyone could come ready to fly and head out to the field directly after briefing. We had various Whatsapp groups to stay in touch with everyone, Forbes Official, Forbes Unofficial and Drivers, so that the drivers could sign in once all of their team were retrieved and we could directly contact the drivers with any safety concerns.