Eye in the Sky Oct 2006
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Sun 29 Oct 2006
Report by Alastair Florence
I made Bell my first stop today as I had expected the wind direction
to start NW and then go East as the day went on.
At first it looked ok although very murky. But smoke from the chimmeny's
on the cottages at the bottom was going horizontal to the hill so a re
location to Monks seemed in order.
Monks looked almost on the strong side at first with low cloud racing
over but was fine once in the air. 6 of us had about 1/2 an hour before
the wind died off and never came back despite many wind sacrifices. Nice
soft air with some workable lift to 300 ft ato max, unfortunate for the
majority who turned up just as the wind died, still after an extra hour
in bed you should have got up earlier. rating 5 (mainly because its just
good to get any kind of fly again after the recent pants spell of conditions)
Nev A won longest top to bottom glide of the day on his HG thingy.
Friday 27th October
Report by Mark Fisher
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Sun 29 Oct 2006
Report by Keith Burridge
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A week in les Greolieres with Andrew Pearce's Flying Frenzy provided
six (could have squeezed a damp seventh) out of seven flying days in various
locations in the alps just north of Nice. Flying ranged from smooth flying
in brisk winds, bumpy ridge soaring and relaxing large top to bottoms
including an awesome flight over Monaco. The various conditions and locations
provided opportunities for performing flying tasks, exercises and afforded
a greater understanding of €œwhat and why€ ones' wing, sometimes does,
€œwhat it does when it does€. Amongst the crew were Wessex members Tony
Farthing & Shamus Pitts. A good time was had by all. Shame we didn't have
a Bill & Ted there because it certainly was an €œexcellent adventure!€
20 Oct 2006
Report by Alastair Florence
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Thu 19 Oct 2006
Report by Cory-wright, Simon
BACK FROM BRILLIANT BASSANO Further to Russell and Luigi's reports, I've
been charged with writing the €˜Official' Wessex Posse Bassano Trip Report.
So here goes. Well as a pilot 3 yrs post-CP with 50-ish hours, for me
this was just about the perfect flying holiday. I've done two trips to
Mayrhofen (in Sept 03 and Jun 04) and one trip to Piedrahita (in Sept
05), and neither was a patch on Bassano. The stats tell the story - 9
days, all flyable (two were overcast so just top to bottoms), 12 hours
added to the logbook from the 7 days we chose to fly. After 3 years of
flying that's 20% more hours added to my logbook in one week! Day 1 -
one of the two overcast days so just a top to bottom, perfect though to
get my flying legs back after 3 months off.
Day 2 - was just getting ready to launch for my first proper flight when
I was greeted with the rather brown-undies-inducing sight of a local hotshot
cravatting massively and going down under his reserve right in front of
takeoff (without injury it turned out). €œHmmm, what the hell am I getting
myself into?!€ I was thinking. All was well though (it turned out it the
reserve deployment arose from a combo of hot wing and not so hot pilot)
and I happily launched, flew and landed an hour and a half later with
a huge smile on my face after a superb flight in plentiful lift.
Days 3 to 7 - Every day was fine, warm and sunny with light winds and
even with high pressure and a heavy inversion, we enjoyed brilliant thermal
soaring conditions. We were able to stay up from about 11. 30am each day,
with flights of 2 hours plus easy-peasy - even for someone like me who
was still popping his serious thermalling cherry. None of us was really
on a mission to do major XC, so even with the inversion keeping a lid
on venturing too far, we still had a good 8 kms of ridge on which to play
about, explore and learn.
Day 8 - the other overcast day but still eminently top to bottomable if
we could've been bothered - we couldn't, so went for a beautiful walk
in the forest instead, spotting wild big-horn sheep/goats along the way.
Day 9 - Best flight of the trip, with weaker inversion and better climbs,
great views and a chance to out-thermal local cracks on twitchy proto-type
wings by calmly steering my nice and safe DHV 1 Gin Bolero into cores
whilst they spent most of their time fending off tucks and collapses.
Highlights of the week were: 1. Thermalling up to 600m above takeoff side
by side with Luigi and with birds of prey, who barely acknowledge your
presence even when they're within about 10 yards 2. Thermalling with sailplanes,
who fortunately DO acknowledge your presence before they get within 10
yards 3. Finding out that a DHV 1 glider is a perfectly suitable piece
of equipment for achieving long flights, going anywhere and occasionally
getting to the top of the stack of 50 or so gliders of various classes.
4. Acro-Mike A perfecting the infinity tumble during the week - only no
one told Mike that infinity tumbles are meant to happen in the air, not
in the form of forward rolls down the slope as a result of aborted takeoffs
5. Awesome food, wine and sorbeto at L'Antica Abbazia (The Old Abbey)
6. A lowlight really but worth mention - Polish pilots. You can't tar
all pilots from one country with the same brush, but in Bassano the visiting
Poles were like the Keystone Cops of the skies. Their takeoff, flying
and landing techniques would have been truly comical if they hadn't been
such a danger to everyone else. Best example was one guy who, when confronted
with overshooting the landing field, decided to pull down hard on his
A-risers from about 30 feet up to get down quicker. How he didn't front-tuck
I'll never know.
7. Last but certainly not least, Luigi's superb hospitality, organisation
and guidance - not to mention vociferous efforts for the rights of visiting
flyers.
We were probably particularly lucky with the weather, but Bassano really
is awesome. There's lots to do for non-flyers too. Anyone going must have
proof of insurance and theoretically should have an IPPI card to level
4 (i. e. BHPA Pilot rated) according to the Italian Federation website
anyway. But Luigi can advise on the reality on the ground, as well as
the local politics surrounding the Montegrappa Airpark €˜Fly Card', which
is another story altogether.
Sat 14 Oct 2006
Report by Sean Staines
Nick LeGras and I went to the Malverns on Saturday on the basis of a
BBC forcast for 9mph easterly with lots of sunshine.
We waited in the fog on top of the hill until around 3pm when it eventually
started to clear. Paraglider pilots started appearing from their hiding
places and eventaually I counted 25 pilots in the air with great ridge
soaring conditions. Nick made it over to the Worcestershire Beacon end
of the ridge. Glad we didn't go to Pandy.
Report by RW
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Luigi's Office was immensely flyable for 90% of the week. The weather
was unexpectedly sunny and warm with thermic flying begiinning around
1130hrs each day, some Pilots were in the air at 0830hrs for the usual
"Sled Ride".
Some Pilots like Luigi and the Wessex's new "Sky God" Simon C. W. were
at it for more than 3 hrs. The first day for me was a little unerving
as immediately after T. O. one Pilot hit sink too close to the ridge top
and did a tree landing in quite a remote place as I approached the lower
South T. O. a wing went into a parachutal stall ( Icaro Incanto ) and
oscillated left & right quite spectacularly, then plummeted into the trees,
fortunately there were no injuries but it took all day to retrieve them.
After that it was flying from several different T. O. s on the Montegrappa
with amazing scenery and the backdrop of the Dolomites. The food was fabulous
the wine very tasty but the Grappa ( potent liquor) was excellent as was
Luigi's hospitality. This Site is to be recommended & Luigi is organising
another event for next Spring, its as cheap as chips.
Report by Mike Bretherton
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Went to Pandy with Simon Herbert today, it was very foggy but it was
forecast to clear up. The wind was just right but the fog just did not
clear up so we did the usual parawaiting all day. About 10 others turned
up, and a few brave souls actually did fly. It got quite gusty on the
top take off but the lower one was ok for most of the day if the near
zero visibility did not bother you. Simon and me did not bother braving
it as there is always another day and it did not look particular pleasant.
Report by Luigi Degli Esposti
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The Wessex Posse (Russell W, Jacquie, Mike A & Annie, Dr Charles,
Simon Cory-Wright & Sylvana) arrived Bassano Sun 08 Oct 06 and flew
on the Monday in brilliant sunshine for as many hours as we could be bothered.
Russell's Report:- "Wessex Posse @ Luigi's office: weather fantastic:
flying every day, accro Mike Adkins with RW trying to compete: Simon CW
skygod: Charles the flying doctor: good time had by all." Mike's
report:- "Lottsa grappa - lottsa flying - warm sunshine - no rain
- wonderful flying - RW doing accro and Mike A doing accro (according
to onlookers!) Many hours clocked up, especially for Simon CW. (NB All
this "accro" stuff refers to various collapses handled by Mike
and Russell respectively - we aren't really into accro!)
Thu 12 Oct 2006
Report by Alastair Florence
It looked like it would have been flyable today and I was tempted to drive home via Milk Hill for a change, but its going in the wrong direction for the back end of the day really so went to Rifle Range again.
Perfect wind strength and good direction on the hill, the whole area was totally deserted except for shed fulls of black cows, not even a dog walker. Maybe had something to with a band of dark murky cloud out in front with a murk curtain hanging underneath. I got a fly in until I could feel the rain spots starting. Conditions were really nice apart from that. I then made the mistake of running back toward my car as I had plenty of height.
Had being the word, as soon as I was over the back I sunk like a lead
balloon and within seconds didn't really have enough height to turn into
wind safely. As I was doing about 30mph down wind though it seemed worth
a try, I was now aiming at a fence and some of the black cows. Fortune
smiled on me though as the last 20ft of decent were a little more bouyant
and allowed me to complete my turn into wind and miss the cows. Cows had
the last laugh though as I had an unplanned spot landing on a cow pat,
slipped and ended up with a flying suit smeared with sh 1 t.
But hey thats paragliding, worth a 4 just for the craick.
Tue 10 Oct 2006
Report by Alastair Florence
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I worked late at Eling tide Mill last night so gave myself an early finish today. SE wind at Andover so headed back via Mere Rifle range. Arrived to find it strong on the ground with several pilots suffering ground suck but one wing in the air and doing ok. I decided the strong wind on t/o was just compression and joined James already airborne. The wind soon mellowed and 4 - 5 of us flew. Only really the SE facing slope was working but the Southerly launch was triggering some small thermals although the air was maybe a bit rotored here. It turned into one of those lightish but really smooth bouyant bouncy soft sort of evenings, not masses of height but very pleasant. Peachometer reading a comfortable 6 by the end of the session.
Report by John Funnell
A short movie on my last trip to San Diego:
http://stage6.divx.com/members/21124/videos/1006159
Sat 07 Oct 2006
Report by Mike Adkins
Arrived on Bell elevenish to find Derek S flying his model aeroplane in a brisk breeze, which was touching 18 mph. We had put Russell off and decided it was too strong, when along came a visiting skygod from The Lakes, Martin Sandwith. (Hope I've got your name right - my memory is about as good as my ground-handling these days!) He had declared a goal of 57km to just this side of Winchester, and within minutes had executed a beautiful strong-wind launch with his Boomerang Sport (As & Ds) and gone! (We subsequently learned that he's about 29th in the British Nationals. ) So Derek and I thought we'd better have a go too. I got 40mins and Derek probably a bit longer, but I can't pretend I found it relaxing! By now the wind was very west, Martin had been retrieved by his well-trained (and attractive) retrieve-driver after some 23km and was ready to go again: Mike Bennett had flown twice and wished he hadn't bothered: Paul H and Neil H had arrived but didn't seem too keen. At this point Derek and I left. I noticed the wind eased later, but whether it had enough north in it to make Bell an attractive proposition, only another report can tell.
Tue 03 Oct 2006
Report by Alastair Florence
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Bell Hill - Late evening - strong - gusty - off to West - but never the
less flyable - Harry D, Keith B, Chap with XIX smile (sorry dont know
your name, but tell me next time you see me) and Martin visiting from
the lakes with Boomerang.
Rating 2. 5 (only gets the 0. 5 because I wasn't sitting on the hill for
ages waiting for it to calm a bit)
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