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Eye in the Sky - Apr 2011Your Flying News Notice Board. Send me
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guidelines Mon 25 Apr 2011 Report by Grant Oseland
Other nut jobs also flew today including Shamus, Adrian, Craig, Marcus, Rich (on his ATOS), Stuart (on his Tandem), and Neil who did a 10km XC just to get away from the hill and the conditions. Most landed with the feeling that it was strong and probably should not have taken off in the first place. Top marks go to the Sigma 8 for being rock solid, fast and making it all seem quite benign even though it does not appear to have enough stringy bits and risers to hold you up as its a three liner, Marcus you really should try to get a demo of one ;-) Report by Neil Mccain At 11am it was howling at Monks. I took shelter in the back field - eerily calm and tranquil - but it was clear it wasn't going to settle down to paragliding strengths. I persuaded Craig that we should leave the site to the hangies (it looked great for them, I hope they had a good day) and head to Okeford. Apparently, the wind wasn't as fierce and Shamus, Paul and Adrian were flying there. No sooner had we begun the trek across when Shamus called in to ask for a retrieve: the Three Must-get-highers had flown to Bulbarrow. This sounded promising, but Shamus's comments about the conditions being on the bumpy side of scary didn't fill me with any joy. We arrived at the car park to join Nigel, Grant, Stuart (and passenger) and shortly afterwards Marcus and Derek - 10 pilots at Okeford must surely be a record! Conditions had definitely 'firmed up'. Adrian boldly launched in a lull. Over the next 25 minutes or so we watched him get picked up, tossed about and generally tumble-dried all over the site. At one point he experienced a pretty big symmetric front collapse and although the wing recovered instantly, it wasn't long before he aimed for the bottom landing field. Nigel now took over, launching sweetly and cruising around looking completely relaxed: the site novice showing the rest of us how to do it. He reported later that it was pretty bumpy and headed for the bottom field too. Mon 25 Apr 2011 Report by Everard Cunion
The club site phone service was not working today, incidentally, in that nobody I spoke to (who tried) succeeded in leaving a message. Report by Adrian Coombe
We were all pleased to climb out together as there was some strong ups but also quick sink. We bumbled along nicely to near Bulbarrow where we got more down than up! Thanks to Nigel and Neil for the lift back, where we re-grouped with others. My next launch was into stronger air where it was rather upsy, downie, biffy and batty! My G3 took a hard hit, recovered immediately, but told me it was time to land - where I had more respect for the canopy than for myself ! Others flew but it was strong. Not sure what happened later but Richard M was rigging his HG as I left... Report by Shamus Pitts
Sun 24 Apr 2011 Report by Shamus Pitts
Nearly 3 hours in the air and regular climbs to 700’+ so not a bad day really – makes up for the last 2 days at the BCC in Wales! Tue 19 Apr 2011 Report by Hamish ?
4 days of epic spring thermals, light winds and fairly decent cloudbase. Fri 15 Apr 2011 Report by Sean Staines
Thu 14 Apr 2011 Report by Grant Oseland
Tue 12 Apr 2011 Report by Marcus Webster
It was a bit rock and roll on take off and I must admit to a bit of "ground suck" as I watched some of TVHGC`s finest taking a pasting as they tried to get away . After an hour or two of procrastinating and watching Ian H and Craig B disappearing over the horizon, I and a few others decided it was time to bite the bullet and give it a go. It took about an hour of hard work to get away from the hill (unlike Pete C who launched and went straight over the back!) I eventually caught the elusive thermal that took me over the back in company with Richard W (we parted company after about 10mins, I never saw where he went?), climbing slowly to nearly 4000ft, before losing my climb and gliding off down wind, desperation setting in as I got down to about 1800ft North West of Hungerford, before stumbling into another solid climb which took me all the way up to 6000ft. I really enjoyed the next 30mins as I followed the M4 East towards Newbury under a solid cloud street, I have often read about people bimbling along on half bar, under clouds not having to turn, as the vario gently chirps away, hands off the brakes eating and taking photos, well it happened to me! My only concern was staying below the base of R41 with it`s base at FL65, I new I was safely clear as I watched sailplanes pass a couple of hundred feet overhead. I think I allowed my self to get to far East as I enjoyed the ride towards Greenham Common, reluctant to leave the security of my cloud street and cross a blue patch to my south. Turning a few degrees to Starboard with Beacon Hill and the A34 now to my right I tried to aim to the west Of Basingstoke, which looked deceptively close and went on another glide across the blue, happy to sacrifice my valuable height as I had to get below the London TMA`s 5500ft base. This was the beginning of the end for my flight as I crossed the M3 a couple of miles to the to the East of Popham, with my GPS gently flashing an "IN AIRSPACE" warning, a quick check of the chart confirmed it was only the Odiham MATZ stub, which I was aware of, but good to know that Mr Garmin was looking out for me, or the many Chinook Pilots in the area! As I started to realise that my options were starting to run out, the only good looking clouds seemed to be directly overhead Lasham, which was a couple of mile ahead on my track, but not a healthy place to be down below 1000ft agl with all the glider traffic and tugs in the circuit!. As I landed feeling a bit defeated, the wind started to pick up and I looked up to see a sailplane casting of its tow, directly under a big fat cloud! Oh well, a few lessons learnt flying over unfamiliar terrain, but all in all a great day out. Thanks to Pete C and Garry P for the relay service back to Liddington Report by Ruth Kelly
... to enjoy a good couple of hours parawaiting. But around 19 O'Clock the wind dropped, and I finally stopped being the Only Wessex Member Not To Have Flown At Bell. Three short flights and another half an hour closer to losing my red ribbon: a lovely evening, and well worth it. Many thanks especially to Neil and Roger for help and encouragement. Report by Steve Whitfield Having kept my eye on RASP over the weekend I managed to wangle a day off work and got to the hill for 9am. My plan was to get a good flight in before getting swamped with PG's. Fortunately for the HG pilots it turned out stronger than forecast and we had the hill to ourselves for most of the day. I had three flights and two and a half hours in the air. The air was lively and the flying exciting and tiring on the arm muscles. Nice formed thermals started coming through about half ten. I managed some good height gains ( for me anyway) with several climbs up to 800ft. The thermals appeared to be more ragged around midday and harder to stay in, but good fun. At one point I saw a 7-8m/s climb rate for a couple of seconds as I passed through a tiny core. I've never seen my vario scale go over 5 before! I had my video camera on for two flights and the result can be found below. Report by Alastair Florence
Frustratingly windy all afternoon, but I gave it a try about 1600 hrs and found it 'uninspiring' sat out for a bit then it got nice for the evening. Hangies actually flying most of the day and plenty pg's later. Report by Grant Oseland
Report by Craig Byrne
Ian H lead the way then RIchard W as the day warmed up the thermals got a bit bigger so I headed off on a good climb and nice flight. Great views and nice cloud streets at times, landed at 60k near New Alsford. Ian H made his goal at 82k nice one Ian! Not sure where the others landed yet. Good day had by most :o) Report by Shamus Pitts
Sun 10 Apr 2011 Report by Shamus Pitts Despite the forecast and the live weather reports, next doors weathervane was showing north-west and the flag 2 doors down was flapping about so I decided to have a look at Telegraph Hill and see if it could really be true! Well, it wasn’t exactly true. There was hardly any wind – there may have been a waft coming on to the hill but it was hard to say so I decided to go home. On the way, I stopped at a more northerly face and watched a couple of buzzards and ravens playing in the stronger thermic breeze that seemed to be coming through and I thought about trying to take off. There were a lot of trees and bushes, though, and also a field of curious bullocks so I decided to call it a day and go home. It was at this point that Gary P phoned! “You not out today?” “There’s no wind is there?” “I’m at Hambledon, it could be a good day for a triangle...” “I doubt it, it’s not looking great” As I was already out and had my gear in the car I gave in and decided to head over to Hambledon. There was a breeze as I walked up – the direction wasn’t great but there was at least a breeze. I found Gary at the top. Thu 07 Apr 2011 Report by Neil Mccain As Simon J took off, tee shirts sleeves flapping, incredulity spread across our Chairman's face. 'Does he think it's summer?', he asked. Roger's reply rather caught the flavour of the day: 'Sunny and warm, heavily inverted and blue, very light and thermic - yes, that does sound pretty summery!' The early birds (Paul and Team 5 Green man) had encountered very different conditions - cold and blustery, there was almost too much wind - but as the car park filled up, the wind dropped almost to zero, and a great deal of socialising broke out. There must have been more than 40 pilots present - amazing! Chatting is good for a while, but in the end pilots gotta fly, and every puff of a thermal-let induced a few to launch. In case anyone fancied TTBs, I organised a target in the landing field and offered to pick people up if they took the bait. Half a dozen did, with the day's only DC being recorded by Mark Russell. (It's trickier than it looks, but worth doing as it's a pilot rating task). Report by Reuben May
Report by Martin Butcher
Wed 06 Apr 2011 Report by Neil Mccain
Report by Paul Hawkins
Sun 03 Apr 2011 Report by Shamus Pitts
Every now and then I think about the cliffs near Bridport and wonder if it’s possible to connect some of them together to make up a long ridge run down to Lyme Regis and back, so today I decided to go down to Hive to see how far I could get. The next section of cliff was much the same as the previous section, except it had a dip of about 100’ half way along it before rising back up and a golf course on top. I knew this section would lead to West Bay so I made the most of every little beep of my vario. By the time I got to the end of the cliff I was up to about 300’ ATO, the highest I’d been so far. The cliff this side of West Bay is a lot higher than the cliff on the other side but it still looked an impossibly long way, about 750m according to Google Earth. I picked out a building that might help me stay up then decided to just venture a little way across to see when the sinking started. I still had my tail wind and before I knew it I was half way across. “I might make it” I thought, soon to be followed by “I don’t think I’m going to make it!” On the other side of the harbour the ground goes up in a gentle slope before building in steepness to meet the main cliff. I arrived very low, maybe 20’ above the pavement, but the wind was pretty strong by now and I followed a seagull up the slope then on to the cliff. I quickly built up my height and, er, relaxed a bit! Stage 3 – West Bay – Complete! As I flew past the Eype takeoff I saw someone laying their wing out – I never saw them fly so I assumed it was a bit windy to takeoff! The next stage was the Eype gap. I’ve crossed the gap at Eype a few times so figured that if I’d made it to Eype the gap would be no problem, and it wasn’t. The wind seemed to be more WSW now and there was orographic cloud blowing over Thorncombe beacon and Doghouse Hill. As I got near Thorncombe my ground speed was dropping all the time and my height was increasing. As I rounded the corner towards Seatown I was on full bar, 750’ ATO and moving forward at about 8 mph. By the time I got to Seatown I decided that there was not much to be gained by going any further. Golden Cap had disappeared in to the orographic, the wind seemed pretty strong this high up and was maybe too far off to the west to be very useful! Just four stages to go now. As I flew past Eype I thought my flight might soon be over and started to wonder how long it would take to walk from West Bay to Hive. From leaving Thorncombe beacon my vario hadn’t cheeped at all as I glided high above the cliff towards West Bay. I was about 300’ higher than I’d been when I crossed the first time but I was a bit concerned to see that I had a head wind. I tucked my arms in and tried to stay as streamlined as possible and headed out in to the unknown. As I crossed the harbour walls I started to sink faster and the cliff seemed like a long way away. I started looking for possible places on the beach to land but eventually I made it to the cliffs. I arrived about half way down and they didn’t work straight away, but I tucked in close and slowly climbed up. Once my wing was above the cliff top I popped up like a cork, built up my height and, well, relaxed a bit! Stage 5 – West Bay Return – Complete! The air was a little lumpy now, I don’t know why. The sun was out so maybe there were small thermals coming off the cliffs. I still had a worryingly strong headwind as I slowly flew down towards Freshwater Beach. I felt like I was high enough but as I started across the gap my ground speed was only 9mph. I tried to make myself streamlined again and crossed my fingers and eventually connected with the cliffs about half way down again. I built up my height etc. Stage 6 – Freshwater Beach return – Complete! I could relax completely now, I knew there would be no long walks and no big gaps. I crossed the Hive gap again, arriving surprisingly low, about 10’ below takeoff. The cliffs weren’t working any better than when I took off, so after flying to the eastern end I turned round, flew back, and landed on the beach, very happy! I was surprised to see that the flight only lasted just over an hour, it felt longer! If I was the sort of person to enter ridge runs in the XC League I would have scored 15.7km, but I’m not. Sat 02 Apr 2011 Report by David Franklin
Just a word of warning( Owen presumably) has put some calves on Bell so don't leave stuff lying out or it will likely get licked and trampled on,oh and watch the fresh pats Report by Shamus Pitts
As I slowed down to make the most of the lift on the end of the hill I looked down to see three more roe deer emerge from the gorse. They stared at me and watched as I drifted by. I turned, and as I approached them again they became nervous and climbed back up the hill to the safety of the gorse. I passed by a couple more times – they stood motionless, staring at me, partially hidden, but I saw them. It’s moments like these that make paragliding so special. Later on I took a slow gusty thermal to 650’ ATO but it fizzled out and the sky was overcast so I headed back to the hill. The wind went WSW, the air got rough and the lift deteriorated so I landed and packed up. 650’, 12 deer and over an hour in the air – not a bad afternnon! Report by Alastair Florence
Late PM I took a drive up to St.A's to find Quentin already in the air. I joined him and had a bit of a windy and un-inspiring flight. But feet off the ground. The terrormeter came up with a 3 reading whilst flying back to the car park and encountering stronger than usual rotor. Fri 01 Apr 2011 Report by Alastair Florence
In the event the sun came out, the wind dropped further than expected and went South East, so plan A turned into plan B a walk up Ballard. Most of the ridge top and take off was clagged in with orographic cloud although the white cliff remained mostly clear, and it was not forming out beyond the cliff front really. I just happen to love flying around orographic cloud so took the opportunity to walk up. As I arrived on take off it clagged in again, but I figured it was probably clear just out in front of take off so I took a calculated chance, launched and flew out into the sun shine. I had just over half an hour cruising the cloud boundaries, for anyone who has taken a walk round Old Harry lately and sat on the cliff edge (like I did a week or two ago) think twice, there's about 3000 tons of chalk freshly fallen near Handfast point, I would not want to be sat on that when it slipped. After a bit I flew up the ridge a bit but I could not really see where I was as the cloud was more spread up this way, I found myself out over the farm and by the time I got back to the white cliff I was scraping the gorse. I could not find anymore lift to took a sled ride to the beach. Beautiful while it lasted, Peachometer 6. Previous reportsIf you find that some of the earlier pages don't
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