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July 2003
Tuesday 22nd July 2003
Report from Matthew Charlesworth
John Alder, Ron Smith, Alasdair and I flew at Ringstead on
Tuesday. I got there at 11'ish to find Ron nearly finished rigging so got
un-loaded asap to get rigged up myself. Half way through rigging, Ron took off
and got really high in the bright sunshine so I got ready and dived off as
well, just as John and Alasdair arrived.
The sun went in but I was still above take-off by the time
I got to the cliffs and had and hour and a half in smooth lift up to 800ft or
so ATO. I got tired so landed just as the sun came out again, and after a
quick bite of lunch had another flight in the sunshine, this time, and got
higher, 997ft ATO (I just couldn't find the extra three feet) and got back
over the landing field with 800ft to spare.
A fantastic day and as I left everybody was lunching before
their second flights, and I guess it was flyable well into the evening.
Sunday 20th July 2003
Report from Alastair Florence
Another unflyable ish day until 1900 hrs when the wind
eased slightly.
I went up to Knitson and found it blowing 15 - 17 MPH.
There was a bit of a wind gradient with height but not to much to worry about.
A bit of speed bar soon got me in front of the hill and there I enjoyed an
hours airtime.
Not quite as rough as usual but instead the wind seemed to
be twisting around up to about 30° at times. Looking at the valley floor in
front of the hill there are a lot of small valleys and hillocks, I reckon
these throw the lower wind around a bit and this in turn makes the upper wind
peculiar. That's my theory any way.
Tuesday 15th July 2003
Report from Dave Daniels
A hot one! 
click image for animation!
Saturday 12th July 2003
Report from Alastair Florence
I had previously predicted that Ballard would be flyable by
1300hrs. I went as far as the lower cliffs and found about 2 mph ESE sometimes
Knitson strangely seems to work when its like this but Knitson had a good 10
mph Due East ??
I gave up as I didn't fancy driving to White Horse where RW
reckoned it was flyable. So went home to do some DIY to try and keep the Air
traffic Controller happy. Little did I realise that Luigi and Brian from
Southampton were lurking on Ballard little more than 200 yds apart separated
by gorse bushes and not realising each other was there. About an hour later
the wind must have picked up as both wings appeared.
The curtain rod had to wait - much to the wife's disgust.
Conditions were gentle with mild thermals popping up from
the cliff but very pleasant.
I was surprised to see a Duck on collision course with me.
The duck did not seem to be looking where it was going and only took avoiding
action 15 metres away, even then it turned left to avoid collision. You can't
trust these ducks
Just before 1800hrs the wind abruptly turned off and the
three of us glided out to bottom land. ATC has grounded me tomorrow over the
curtain rod incident though.
Friday 11th July 2003
Report from Matthew Charlesworth
I got to Bell at about 6PM on Friday to find loads of
hang-gliders on the hill. Mikes report was right as it had been hang-glidable
all day but according to Ron Smith, it had been very lumpy and not too
pleasant. You'll have to ask them how it went as the wind had dropped a bit by
then so I rigged up and had half an hour in testing but OK conditions. When it
was on I got high (800ft ATO), but when it was off we were scratching right in
the bowl and were lucky to top land. Somebody did bottom land though, on an
old Gyr hang-glider. It was Dave Moores doing his first solo top to bottoms.
As I arrived at the hill they were packing up the tandem in the bottom field
but I was flying when Dave did his first T2B so missed all the fun.
I saw him do his second though. He soared well for a few
minutes and even did a 360 to show off. The guy is a natural and as I was
leaving he was going back up to do yet another flight in the strengthened
wind. You must get him to do a report on his progress. Bob Dear was flying and
witnessed it all so I can feel an article coming on in the club mag.
Report from Brian Parkins
First visit to Bell Hill in many a long time. (I am
reminded later why I've stayed away so long ...) A brisk NW with clear skies.
Where did that nice-looking Cu disappear to? Forecast is for high pressure to
build, so I expected the breeze to be light - and drop through the day. It
didn't - wonderful.
Gorged myself on airtime. Clocked up over 4-hours in just
3-flights. Average height gains to 1,000ft ATO, but reached 2,000ft during one
nice spell. Good to meet up with some familiar faces as around a dozen hangies
played in the sun. Don't remember anyone going for distance, everyone seemed
too busy enjoying themselves investigating the interesting lift patterns and
exploring the site. Our very own Editor had a couple of pleasant flights too!
I scrounged a 30-min flight on the new Wills Wing U2 160. Very nice - thanks
Matt!
By early evening the wind dropped to a gentler 14-16mph,
and the floppies came out to play. Boy, did they swamp the slope!
The lift cycles became more marked with familiar periods of
'scratching'. I got caught out at the wrong end of the bowl during a
particularly severe 'down'. Problem was, PG everywhere - most seemed to be
scooting low around the launch area. Why couldn't a few land and give the rest
of us some breathing space? I was staggered to see 2 or 3 MORE launch in the
weak conditions - aggravating the situation. Don't these people have any
consideration? (I'm afraid my annoyance got the better of me - I shouted at 'em.
Sorry to spoil the tranquility of the evening.)
The lift did return, and I did manage to climb back up from
below the tree-line - but not before more shouting. (I guess the supine flying
position of PG makes it impossible for pilots to look anywhere other than
directly in front. Rather worrying when trying to overtake behind. There's
gonna be a serious mid-air ....)
That was enough for me - time to pack up. (Now I remember
why I don't visit Bell Hill so often.) Watched Dave M. complete some
impressive flights on an old Goldmarque Gyr. Nicely done, Dave. Very pleasant
drive home in the cool evening air and setting sun.
Report from Mike "Real Paragliding" Bretherton
Weather Jack is verging on a 5 star day and a light NW post
cold frontal forecast has Simon Herbert, Dom Schetini, Adrian Bishop and
myself arriving at Bell for an early start. But its blowing 24mph (not again!)
and the hangies are rigging !, Welcome to the world of paragliding or is it
para-waiting.
We phone Wendy for Combe and its NW 4 -14mph, so we all
bugger off to Combe, it’s a long way but its better than waiting for it to
get stronger on Bell.
We get to Andover and phone Wendy again, its now gone WSW,
so another change of plan and we are now heading for Olivers.
As we get get close we spy a paraglider several Kms from
the hill and high, and we accelerate towards Olivers. As we get to take off
another two pilots are leaving the hill in almost blue conditions. We prepare
to take off, but we are the only pilots there and the wind is blowing from
almost nothing to in excess of 20mph. Mmmmmm, might give it time to die down,
but Simon launches and is flying nicely out in front with no hint of gale
hanging even though the wind occasionally comes blasting through launch at
hang-glider speeds.
As the cycle subsides, Simon lands and I have a go. After a
couple of crap take off attempts, I launch and quickly climb to a couple of
hundred feet. Its very thermic and I am a little concened about leaving the
hill too low but I take a strong one back and I am climbing far more than I am
drifting back so I continue with it. It’s the strongest thermal I have ever
had in the UK, constant 4m/s and hitting 5m/s at times, yes, yes, yes !
After about 1000ft it petered out to almost nothing but I
kept with it. With just a few whisps of cumulus to follow I play with them
between 1000ft and 1500ft ATO for about an hour all the way to Pewsey.
It was fairly busy up there, sailplane, light aircraft,
twin engine aircraft, military transporter, apache attack helecoptor and I had
a very close encounter with a military helecoptor (chuga chuga chuga, as I
waved at the pilot !). I forgot my airmap (naughty!
DD)
and I had to keep looking at my GPS and the ground to make a judgement for
where the Danger Area and military airfields were.
At Pewsey I nearly lost it but got a nice thermal up to
base which was about 3000ft ATO. I decided to take a risk and go for a few
down wind glides to get a few more kms in. It worked quite well and I followed
some street wisps .... if there is such a thing.
Eventually I past near to an airfield which turned out to
be Thruxton so I turned away, I checked my GPS afterwards and I just managed
to stay out of the Danger Area and the Thruxton ATZ so my dead reckoning was
OK. Had trouble getting around Andover so when I got low I landed by a
Harvester Pub before I landed in someone's garden.
2hrs and 37Km from take off. After I landed my friends were
already en route for a retrive. Got picked up as I was sunning myself in the
beer garden and tucking into a Pint, Burger and Chips, NICE !.(I'd
have happily forgone the PB&C for 37km! Thanks for a real flying
report! DD)
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| Simon on Olivers | Mike @ Base |
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| Pewsey | |
Thursday 10th July 2003
Report from Alastair Florence
Belated thanks to Dave D for the retrieve from the field
outside Sean L's house last Sunday. Dave often seems to spend as much time
helping the rest of us fly as flying himself, good man (creep creep).
Yesterday I tried Kimmeridge at lunchtime but found it a
bit light to fly properly and performed some acrobatic rolls whilst going
through gorse and nettles instead. Then tried Knitson in the evening, that was
too light and too West (there's no pleasing some people).
I resisted the temptation to take another short lunch break
today and instead went to Kimmeridge on the way home. A new pilot (who's name
I didn't catch) and Phil "ZZ" were already there. The wind was
light-ish but looked flyable. We were soon in the air as we expected the wind
to drop to nothing before long. There was enough lift and enough punchy
thermals to make things interesting. After nearly an hour the sea, which had
been glassy, was being ruffled by something. Within the space of 2 or 3
minutes the gentle breeze had become nearly 20 mph. Phil was by the mid spur
and got back to T/O without too much bother, I was at Swyre Head and had to
make a series of speed bar tacks to get back for a safe landing.
The wind soon subsided and became pleasant again with Dave
G and Alan B arriving to enjoy the evening until the wind died.
Monday 5th July 2003
Report from RW
Another great day at the office!! John B, John F, &
Alli F all supposed to be at work, we all like competition for airtime!!
After a lovely day on Sunday at Ringstead it was much the
same today just different wings & faces. Even XC King Matt R came along -
although only to say Hello.
Height gains of 600' ATO and some smooth air whilst
Kimmeridge was "blown out".
Hours of fabulous soaring and top landings, such pleasant
flying. In attendance:- Luigi, Shippo, Peter C, John B, John F, Keith ?, Brian
M, Martin W, Ron S, Alli F, local photographer Ian Koenig who has some good
shots if you want.
Sunday 6th July 2003
Report from Matthew Charlesworth
Managed to get a flight in at Ringstead this Sunday. The
forecast was for sea-breezes so I left it until after lunch, having spoken to
ZZ at Bell earlier that morning. There was no wind there but he called me from
Ringstead later (as I was half way to Bell) to say that it was light but on
the hill. As I got to Ringstead Richard Mosesley launched and had a shortish
flight and, as I was rigging, Ron Smith took off and seemed to be doing well
out on the cliffs even though there didn't seem to be too much lift on the way
out there. I followed out and was under cliff height when I got there but
managed to claw my way up to 450ft ATO. There were several PGer's up including
ZZ and Stuart M was doing tandems with a group of girls! (And he won the
Bell raffle! What does a guy have to do to get that much luck?)
Anyway, the conditions were coming and going a bit so when
I lost 100ft in one beat up the White Nothe I decided to head back to landing
field. Typically as I was de-rigging the wind started to pick up again and
both Richard and Ron went for 2nd flights
A quick hop then, but worth it all the same and it's given
me my 'fix' for the week.
Report from Mike Bretherton
After a reasonable time on Friday 4th July at Bell Hill
where I managed 7Km after an hour in the air and having a crap time at Combe
on Saturday I went to the Festival of Flight at Kemble Airfield near
Cirencester.
At 11am the sky looked epic and I was rubbing my hands at
the thought of a long XC though unrestricted airspace in a light South
Westerly, .but by the time the winch launching commenced at midday, the sky
overdeveloped again for the third day running and I had 3 winch launches only
to about 400ft.
On one launch, I managed to climb up to 1,500ft in very
weak lift and floated around for about 30mins, nice while it lasted.
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| Over Kemble Airfield |
Report from Simon Jones
What a day yesterday - my first proper day on the hill with the Wessex crew and I now see what all the fuss was about! Here is my report which you are free to use on the Eye in the Sky but apologies as I don't know everyone's names just yet...
Arrived at Kimmeridge at midday with Dave Thomas to see 3 or 4 wings in the
air. We sensed Nicole giggling from on high as we trudged up the bridle path
and she circled effortlessly above in the classic dynamic conditions. I had
two thoughts - would I make it up the hill and would I complete my CP?
I met Dave Daniels at the top and Adrian Bull then turned
up and pointed out the regular faces (Alistair 'how high?' Florence etc...)
although some were already familiar from the Bash.
Launching under the eye of John Welch I had great fun in
the increasingly strong conditions and saw Adrian and Dave T launch beneath me
- Adrian impressive as ever on the Firebird Z-One, clocking well over an hour
cruising to the end of the ridge and back and getting some good height gain
ATO. I chose my moment to come in and completed a clean top landing which left
one more to do. Conditions strengthened for a couple of hours but John
encouraged me off the hill once more - the thought of that green CP sign off
sheet was ever-present as I span around and got away cleanly on the trusty
Atom. By now, some thermic gusts were coming through and I was getting higher
with every beat but conscious that I had to top land and the sooner the better
- no big ears required though and I touched down to complete my CP - hurrah!
Alistair Florence got away and almost made Corfe Castle -
one day I'll work out how to get so high so quickly! - and everyone enjoyed
themselves. Later Brian and Luigi turned up and also had some airtime in the
smooth evening air. It was my first day on the hill since joining Wessex three
months ago and everyone was very friendly and encouraging, especially Nicole
'Noodles' who said it was nice to see some young blood on the hill (I think
she meant Dave T!)...all in all a great day, lovely flying and thanks to Dave
Daniels for the Jaffa cakes. Can't wait till next time!".
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| Arriving at Kimmeridge | Ali starts his flight .... |
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| ... and climbs away! | Nicole soars in the smooth evening air. |
Saturday 5th July 2003
Report from Dave Daniels
This was most certainly not the weather that had been in
the exciting forecasts for the past 4 days! "Naff" would be an over
statement with "top-to-bottoms" being the order of the day for the
frustrated paraglider pilots assembled at Bell Hill.
The only good use for the day was to do a couple of
front-launch take-offs on the tandem as part of my tandem training with John
Welch.
Friday 4th July 2003
Report from David Franklin
This was Bell on Friday. Not quite the weather we had been hoping for, but it was still good enough to escape the prowling insurance salesman who insisted "you lot must be hurting and injuring yourselves all the time".
Tuesday 1st July 2003
Report from RW
A look out of the bedroom window at 0930hrs ( I had been up
for 3 hours) and I saw an unfamiliar wing flying at Ringstead. 10 mins later
& a call from Dave G. to confirm it was his good self on his new wing
& I was mobile to the hill.
The weather looked abysmal with huge dark grey clouds
looming behind the ridge at Dorchester & coming from the west. No problem,
the sun was shining at Ringstead & it was smack on! An hour of bumbling
around with nothing higher than a hundred feet and it started to spot with
rain, a dash to the jeep & lunch and it cleared away. Forward into some
little thermals and some additional height gain and it was a no go to the
cliffs as the wind was definitely veering westerly. Another small shower &
Gaz M. arrived for a look see! "Oh! there's a nice thermal" he
exclaimed & I launched & started to get hoovered up, still no go to
the cliffs as it was definitely, definitely going west; So in went the "
big ears" and a good clean landing back at T.O. to a compliment from Gaz
& the words " Good decision". Enough said.
Eye in the Sky - June 2003 - Part 2
Eye in the Sky - June 2003 - Part 1
Eye in the Sky - May 2003 - Part 2
Eye in the Sky - May 2003 - Part 1
Eye in the Sky - April 2003
Eye in the Sky - March 2003 - II
Eye in the Sky - March 2003 - I
Eye in the Sky - February 2003
Eye in the Sky - January 2003
Eye in the Sky - November/December 2002
Eye in the Sky - October 2002
Eye in the Sky - September 2002
Eye in the Sky - August 2002 - Part 2
Eye in the Sky - August 2002 - Part 1
Eye in the Sky - July 2002 - Part 2
Eye in the Sky - July 2002 - Part 1
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 and before