Malvern - 16th February 2008 (2)

Made the trip over from Milton Keynes leaving a little later than planned and getting to the site around midday after negotiation a road closure near Worcester which added to the delay.

Was straining to see if I could spot any wings in the air from the moment I saw the ridge in the distance but was quickly becoming certain it was a wasted trip over as I couldn't see a thing. Still, I was going to have a nice days walking even if there was no flying.

As I got closer I started to be able to pick out a few gliders in the sky but by the time I was near the the hill I could see plenty in the air - but it looked cold.

For once I managed a (nearly) perfect launch first time after waiting ages for a lull in the medium-strong conditions on take-off. Everyone seemed to be maintaining height with no problems at all and even pushing far out in front of the ridge.

It was freezing on take-off but once I was in the air it was surprisingly OK. By the end of the days flying I was well and truly frozen - or my fingertips were at least. I seriously started to wonder whether it was posiible to get frost-bite from a few hours flying! Letting go of the brakes and dangling my arms down seemed to restore some blood flow which helped a bit.

Deciding to land I discovered a problem...there was so much lift it was impossible to top-land. i tried so many times but just locked onto the magic staircase every time and just couldn't get down. Eventually I decided I'd better head for the main landing field before the light went and on landing quickly packed up as I needed to find a lift back to the car park on the other side of the ridge. Luckily one last pilot was waiting for a lift round and his mate dropped me off too - thanks very much whoever you were!

Malvern - 16th February 2008

First flight at Malvern. Managed 2 1/2 hrs before succumbing to the cold and failling sunlight. A great days flying with lots of silky smooth air. Not much chance of sinking out - there was lift everywhere!

I'll add more photos and details in the next couple of days.

See more photos on flickr

I was particularly pleased with this image.

Dynamic Decisions DVD

Browsing XCShop just recently I found myself tempted by this DVD. Having received it a fews days after ordering I watched it few times and was fairly pleased with what I got for my £5.95.

If i'd ever been tempted to upgrade my wing this DVD would have cautioned me against getting one beyond my experience. As it is I haven't been tempted to upgrade as (a) I don't fly often enough; (b) I still consider myself a relative beginner; and (c) cost is unlikely to ever not be an issue!

Anyway, I was very much reassured that the low-end 1-2 gliders exhibited lots of passive safety. My wing is a Skywalk Tequilla (a low-end 1-2) and seeing how some of the higher rated gliders reacted to both symetric and asymetric collapses I shall remain happy with my glider for some time to come.

There is also some nice flying footage on the DVD as well as the demonstrations of how the different grade gliders react to collapses. While its not a full-on professionally filmed and produced DVD I felt that for the price it was certainly good value for money and much welcome inspiration in the UK winter time.

Algodonales

I've just booked up for a weeks XC/thermalling course with Flyspain at the end of March in Algodonales. Having looked at many other courses/holidays and locations this seemed to offer the best deal for my level of experience and they also have self-catering accomodation. Hopefully i'll get some longer flights than I managed last year in Greece but without conditions being too booming! I had been planning an SIV course in Turkey this year but the dates clash with a friends wedding. Given the awful flying weather we've been having lately in the UK I'm currently wondering if I'll even get back in the air before I head off to Algodonales?

Anyway - time to start dreaming about some big distance flights in a sunny land...

Ground Handling Techniques - DVD

I bought this DVD a few weeks back from XCShop. I have watched it a couple of times now but to be honest I wasn't that impressed. There were a few useful tips I picked up regarding launches but I think my copy will be hitting eBay in the not to distant future. I would be great to handle a glider that well but just to have suitable conditions for groundhandling would be a major achievement in the UK. Most of the time it seems that the wind is far too strong and gusty. I would rate it 4 or 5 out of 10. Worth a look but not worth £19.95. Save your money for one of Jocky Sanderson's or Bruce Goldsmith's titles.

A photo of me?

Just came across this image of me flying at Rushup last week on another website. See the photo in-situ on the UK Climbing Website: http://www.ukclimbing.com/images/dbpage.html?id=77339

The wonder of networked living!

Rushup Edge - 13th December 2007

I'd almost given up any thought of flying before the end of the year. Every weekend I'm free it seemed to either be howling a gale or pouring with rain. This week though an area of high pressure settled over the UK giving light southerlies so checking every forecast on the web I booked the day off work at the last minute and the following morning left home at 7am headed for Rushup.

I arrived about 10.30am surprised to find no-one in the air and only a few cars in the car park. It seemed highly flyable and so I made my way up on to the ridge. The wind was between 10 and 12mph and all seemed fine. I took off second go after a mild dragging on my first attempt (wing came up asymmetrically) and soared around for 5 minutes or so before being forced into a slope landing as I slowly lost height. The air was smooth enough but had areas of lift closely followed by sink. Kind of weird - it was smooth lift followed by very smooth sink - almost like sets of stairs in the air mass. I'd not flown in such un-predictable conditions before and they seemed especially strange as the wind on the hill was so consistent. Was this some mini wave effect I wondered. There were some wave-ish bars of cloud in the sky to the south west but I didn't think that would affect me below the top of the ridge.

Slogging back up the hill saw me disintegrating into a sweaty state of near collapse at several points before I got back to take-off. I sat down for half an hour to recover and to re-assess conditions. Why had I gone down when the wind was so consistent? It was a little bit off to the West but no more than when I was here in October.

A couple of other pilots arrived after a while - one a willing wind dummy so I got to wait and see if things had improved. They had! We all took off soon after and spent a very pleasant hour or so wafting around in the smooth, light conditions.

At the end of the day the sunlight broke through the clouds and illuminated the hillside and I followed Mat along the ridge and down to the landing field with a number of hill walkers photographing us as we flew past them. A great end to the day where the temperatures never got above 3^oC.

See more photos on flickr

Rushup Edge - 21st October 2007

At last I've made it to the Peak District. Having spent many years climbing and walking in the peaks I know many of the sites quite well from the ground so it was lovely to fly one of them at last. I got a lift up with Keith and Tanya (thanks guys) and driving towards the site we could see a few gliders in the air. The walk up was a lot shorter than it looked and I met Adam, another Dunstable member on the way up.

Had a lovely day flying the ridge from one end to the other and back. It was fairly light conditions but it was relaxed flying, great views and nice to see so many gliders in the air - don't they look pretty! I also met up with Andy who I met in Greece back in May this year.

Can't wait for another opportuntity to fly in the peaks, but with winter coming it may be some time.

See more photos on flickr

St Andrè, September 2007

Having gained a bit of experience at Lachens and Gréolières I was keen to fly somewhere with a bit of XC potential. St Andrè has certainly got a reputation in this regard and I was keen to see how far we might be able to go.

Arriving on launch I was a bit concerned to see how windy it was, but people seemed to be getting off OK (OK so there were a few minor mishaps but it seemed doable) and the sky was blue and full of gliders.

Once I was all ready to go it seemed like the wind was just getting stronger. There were lulls but once again I found myself battling with the wing on the ground. After lots of waiting and a few failed attempts I took off and immediately went up - rather faster than I was used to. Ulric followed me into the air and I concentrated on moving along the ridge and thermalling to get some height.

After gaining quite a decent amount of height with little effort I tried to push further along the ridge only to hit lots of sink. I couldn't believe it. In almost no time I was well below launch and it looked like I would be heading for an early landing. I was the only one going down and so I just kept searching for lift. I eventually found a good climb which I stayed with for 700m until I topped out at about 2,300m - what a relief! Such a great feeling to have fought my way back up, although it seemed to take forever.

Our plan for starters was to try and fly along the ridge but Ulric also found lots of sink and so we instead decided to attempt crossing the valley over the town of St Andrè to the Crète Des Serres. All went well to start with but I ended up only finding sink apart from a couple of blips on the way over and was forced to contemplate my landing options on the far side of the valley, but well short of the ridge.

It wasn't too hard to find somewhere to land once I had established where the pylons and electricity wire were! Safely down on the ground I could only ponder my misfortune. Apparently it is rare not to make the transition when leaving the hill at the height I did, so I was clearly unlucky. Still, I was safe and felt very pleased with my thermalling and that I had found that climb which saved me from an even earlier bomb-out.

Conditions were fairly gentle according to Ulric and I didn't have any problem dealing with them - although a small front collapse just after take-off was a little concerning but it came out of its own accord.

The views from the air were amazing. It was an especially clear day and the peaks of Mercantour were visible in the distance. Other pilots made 50km+ but for me it was a more modest affair but certainly valuable experience and a taster of what I hope to do a bit more of in the future.

I stayed with Ruth and Ulric Jessop in their self-catering flat which i'd highly recommend.

Gréolières, September 2007

Having had a few flights at Lachens inthe company of Ulric I felt confident enough to try a solo flight from Gréolières in the next valley. Ulric had warned me that it was difficult to climb out from this site and right he was. I found myself going down almost immediately! But a short top to bottom flight was just fine and I comfortably made the landing field after losing height over the pretty town.

The walk up to launch was long and hot, but with Ravi generously offering to (practically forced me to let her) carry the glider for some of the way the task wasn't as hard as it could have been . Once on launch we were met with a gentle southerly breeze directly onto the hill and so I got away without too much trouble. I would love to fly here again (when the navette is running!).

Lachens, September 2007

On holiday in the Maritime Alps for a fortnight i'd arranged some guiding with Ulric Jessop. It took a few days before we both felt it might be suitable for a nice evening flight at a local site. In all I flew at Lachens four times during the week, mostly just soaring, but also finding some thermals but they were never that strong although they allowed me to gain height and prolong the inevitable return to earth.

On a few occasions we shared the hill with a local paragliding school, though it never seemed too busy. Lovely evening sunset flights in smooth air - couldn't ask for more!

Video of me reverse launching during CP training in India - 2005

Great new book

I ordered this book a couple of weeks back. Haven't had much time to actually read it but what I have read has been really interesting - makes quite a change from the Pilot Handbook or Touching Cloudbase.

As i'm off to the Alps very shortly its come at the perfect time and from what i've seen it seems to cover everything i could possibly want to know about thermal flying.

I ordered my copy from Northern Paragliding and received it the very next day - how's that for service!

Long Mynd - 25th August 2007 (2)

Eventually conditions calmed down a bit and taking my wing a bit further down the hill I figured i'd be able to launch safely enough. Sensibly waiting to see a few others do this first I decided it was my time again. Again I made a perfect launch and was soon flying high above the hill and connecting with the odd thermal and drifting back.

At one point i'd probably drifted too far back as I struggled to make it back to the hill, but I guess I learnt something. The crowds had left and there were a few pilots in the sky but i had a lovely flight with plenty of space to myself to play around.



It had been a magic day and I didn't want to land, but the prospect of a 2-3 hr journey back to Milton Keynes meant that I had to cut the flight shorter than I would have liked - I also needed to eat!



I set up for another top-landing but this time didn't get it quite right and so had to correct my approach and landed nicely at the back of launch. If only it had been closer to home, I would have flown until the sunset. As I pulled away in the car the sky was still full of people enjoying the last of the day.

Long Mynd - 25th August 2007

Having kept a close eye on the weather, it all looked set for the Mynd - a site I hadn't flown before but had heard a lot about. Given that it is 2-3hrs from my house I wanted a guaranteed day (or as near as possible). Leaving a little later than planned I hit bank-holiday traffic before Shrewsbury and not seeing a whisper of wind thought i'd had a wasted journey. Eventuall I navigated my way through Church Stretton and up towards the site. On the way I was convinced there would be no wind and so was looking forward to rambling around the hills for the day as it looked so lovely. The, as I rounded a bend I could see a sky full of paragliders and my dissapointment turned to euphoria - it was flyable.

I parked and walked onto launch, took a few photos and got my gear sorted. Clipped in and the wind died. Everyone was grounded immediately. Eventually it became clear that this might last a while so I unclipped, got out of my flying suit and settled down for a lie down in the warm sun.
Someone had a remote control paraglider complete with action-man pilot which kept people amused, then all of a sudden the wind switched on and people were taking off all over the hill. I got ready and was soon in the air myself. I stayed up for 45 mins or so, catching a few thermals and getting nice and high. I headed down the ridge where it was quieter and settled into flying and taking in the beautiful landscape. Eventually I felt like I wanted a rest and so headed back to launch intending to top-land. For once this went like a dream and I made a text-book landing.

By this time conditions had picked up a bit and so I had my lunch and waited for things to calm down a bit.