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July 2002 - Part
I
Saturday
13th July 2002
Report
from Mike Bretherton
The weather forecast appeared to be epic, so Adrian Lepard, Simon Herbert,
Adrian Bishop, Dom Schetini and I went to Combe.
Adrian Lepard had a very nice flight very early before the
rest of us turned up. Then the wind appeared to go west and it went almost
dead with very few weak thermal cycles. Adrian Leppard who left at 2:15 was
the skygod sacrifice as a boomer came through at about 2:30pm and every man
and his dog got away.
I broke my endurance (3hrs 29mins), distance (78Km), height
gain (4950ft) and UK altitude (6000ft) records today, cloudbase was over
5500ft and I made Chichester but I saw several others go even further!
Left the hill at only 600ft expecting to go only a few
Km's, I had a low save at 200ft around Facombe where I climbed out to a couple
of grand. Caught another thermal over Hastbourne Tarrent where a Tornado
fighter aircraft decided to have a near miss with me and appeared to have to
bank to avoid me and the dozen other Xc paragliders, it was going so fast I
could not hear it until it had passed. Got to Whitechurch where it went
ballistic, over 5m/s constant lift to about 6000ft ! Had to big ear out of
cloud and was very worried with a sailplane thermalling close below me in zero
viz.
I thermalled for about an hour in scratchy lift over the
A303 and M3 to the Alresford Solent airspace corner. Then I headed towards
Butser Hill where I picked up another thermal, then another over Waterloovile.
I decided to go for Hayling Island to get max distance but I seemed to catch
the sea breeze convergence so I changed track and had a 20Km almost zero sink
glide east to land at a Burger King south of Chichester.
Adrian Bishop made a very respectible 30Km south of Popham
and Simon made 12 Km only to land because he was flying in Tshirt and Shorts
after he decided there was no chance of going Xc. He was given a lift back to
the hill by an X glider pilot who was about 85 who last flew a glider in the
second world war. Dom (a new member to Wessex) completed his first ever Xc of
5 Km.
After landing up to my waist in wheat, Simon and Dom picked
me up literally a minute after packing away as I had radio'd them over Butser.
Best flying day ever.
(Just
a pitty you weren't using a Wessex site - traitors! DD)
 |
 |
Chichester
and the cathederal.
(I think he superimposes a pic
of his boots over a scan from a
postcard - the boots are always
in the same position! DD) |
Smug bugger
@ 6,000' cloud base. |
 |
 |
| Hayling
Island |
Near
Chichester |
Report
from Dave Daniels
Another early start to get out and enjoy the glorious weather had me soaring
the hill at Bell before 8am! Not surprisingly, it was not very thermic - more surprisingly,
it never really boomed - despite the clouds suggesting that it was - and
almost 40 card on the hill indicating that this interpretation was not
restricted to a few optimists.
Almost 40 cars prevents me remembering all the names - even
if I could remember them - and my skills in the name remembering business are
well known. I've seen this number of cars on Bell before - but never seen the
sky so full! On previous occasions there were sufficient numbers getting away
to keep those stuck on the hill to reasonable numbers - but this time there
was a point where there were almost 40 cars and only one person had got
away! (That was me!)
One name I can remember - Peter Robinson - managing almost
38.3km to Picket Post! There were a few other XCs - but every one of them was
eclipsed by Peter, and every one of them eclipsed my 4.8km to the cricket
pitch at Winterborne Stickland. However - after almost three years of
struggling to achieve an XC in the UK - it felt pretty damned good to
me! Goodness knows what almost 40km feels like!
The hill had a few new members
out for their first Wessex experience - Terrry Brannigan amongst them finding.
Sunday, I hear, was not so much fun (I was at the
Goodwood Festival of Speed in god-father mode) - but that didn't stop Peter
vanishing into the distance - ending up even further for 42.7km.
Apparently another new pilot managed his first XC, to Wareham. Well done,
whoever, write and tell us all about it!
(Peter
has written an article for the magazine on these two flights!)
Sunday
7th July 2002
Report
from David Daniels
Anyone loose a helmet on Ringstead on Saturday? Give me a call! D
Thick mist/orographic covered Durdle Door and Ringstead first thing in the
morning with 10mph wind from the SW. Typical! And as it cleared and the sun
broke through ..... the wind picked up to 16 mpg gusting 20. Even more
typical! :)
Later the wind eased off ... or at least the gusts did,
giving a steady 16mph. Flyable, yes - but too near the limit for me.
John Dakin arrived with two friends who launched and
reached the cliffs using large amounts of speed-bar with almost no loss of
height, and John following on in more cautious mode a few minutes later.
Ron S, Tony M and John A each had flights and landed as the
cloud-base became lower and the orographic more significant, returning to the
hill as what looked like a band of rain approached.
At the same time the three paragliders returned from their
second flights to the cliffs and the vis. dropped to less than 100m in the
thick orographic.
Gordon M arrived in the hopes of airing his crinkly new,
and un-flown Ozone Vibe - but the only flying he manages was with his Ozone
kite before he and I retired to the pub.
Saturday
6th July 2002
Report
from Jon Harvey
Westbay midmorning wind s/w 12/16 mph and steady. Phoned reasonably local
pilots as shipping forecast was to pick up force 4/5 afternoon.
Only two pilots myself and an Essex (calls himself local)
pilot, Keith Boniface.
Flew Westbay to Seatown (Chideock) many times and as wind
picked up reaching 1000 ft asl above Thornecombe Beacon but unfortunately
unable to penetrate Golden Cap due to wind direction which was going westerly.
On last return from Thornecombe made Westbay in 3m30s (just over 2.5kms) and
with over 600ft crossed the Harbour to fly the east cliffs to wards Burton
Bradstock returning to land on east beach at Westbay wind speed now around
17/20 sea level, after 2hrs30minsairtime.
The ridge from Westbay to Charmouth is just under 10 kms
and the other direction to Burton Bradstock is approx 3.5 kms so if you want a
good coastal run why not visit us in the west.
Unfortunately Charmouth is OOB (t/o and supposedly
landings) from the third week July to end of of first week Sept (the school holiday period)
but there isn't any restrictions from Westbay.
So come on down west!
Report
from David Daniels
Thank the sky gods for Ringstead!
The forecasts had 9mph NW at 7am strengthening and backing
to 14mph SW - so an early start and a call to Wendy was telling of NE/NNE at
10mph! Weather forecasters - don't ya love 'em?
By 8am I'd already had several flights in very scratchy
NNEs at Monks - including one to 350ft - then the wind just switched off.
Dave M, Colin D, Craig B and Martin H arrived and it was
soon obvious that what wind there was had already become NW - so we decamped
to Bell.
At Bell there were a few more familiar faces - Peter S,
Sean S, Keith W and Brian M amongst them - most of whom unpacked and waited in
harnesses for a thermal to pluck us from the ground and take us to clod
base. But the wind went even more westerly and the thermals were almost
non existent.
Brian had heard from Ian O that he was at Ringstead and
that it was flyable - so after an hour or so of the waiting game, Keith,
Martin, Brian, Sean and I shot off there.
Ian was over White Nothe so as soon as I was out of the car
I was in the air! The wind felt smooth and about 12mph on launch - but the
launch felt like 16mph! No real problem - but I realised a launch from even
lower down the slope than I had made would have been more sensible.
A couple of beats and I'd made no height to speak of, and I
saw Gary M arriving - then "bang" - 300ft came from nowhere. The
flight to the cliffs lost almost no flight until the last 50m making a pass
way over the houses on the cliff at considerable height.
From White Nothe I could see Sean, Martin and Brian follow
me out, I could see Alan B arriving - then I noticed a wing in the bushes back
on take-off and a little later Keith W flew out to the cliffs. Several other
wings were to be seen back on launch ready for flight - but nobody else flew
to the cliffs.
At the cliffs the air was it's usual silky smooth and we
were all cruising up and down at up to some 720ft ato.
Orographic cloud came and went a couple of times below us -
first time that's happened when I've been flying - and made an interesting
view of the cliffs to the east and toward takeoff.
We all had flights of around 2 hours landing in strong
conditions.
Apparently only minutes after I had launched the wind had
picked up and had even caused one paraglider to launch by itself and fly the
harness back into the fence.
I gather others flew at Whitesheet in the westerlies
Thursday
4th July 2002
Report
from Neil Weymouth
The weather report was westerly but as I reached St Aldhems it was definitely
SW, but decided to have a go anyway.
The initial run out to the main cliff was therefore rather
slow but once there 600ft ato and able to penetrate well out to sea.
Had an hours flying before having to return to work, by
which time the wind at take off had increased needing speed bar to prevent
being blown back.
St Aldhems is an enjoyable (unofficial!)
site well worth trying if you haven't been there.
Eye in the Sky - June 2002 - Part 3
Eye in the Sky - June 2002 - Part 2
Eye in the Sky - June 2002 - Part 1
Eye in the Sky - May 2002
Eye in the Sky - April 2002 - Part 2
Eye in the Sky - April 2002 - Part 1
Eye in the Sky - March 2002
Eye in the Sky - 2001 roundup
Eye in the Sky - September/November 2001
Eye in the Sky - July/Augsust 2001
Eye in the Sky - June 2001
Eye in the Sky - March to May 2001
Eye in the Sky - Feb 2001
Eye in the Sky - September and October 2000
Eye in the Sky - August 2000
Eye in the Sky - July 2000
Eye in the Sky - June 2000
Eye in the Sky - May 2000
