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Eye in the Sky - July 2007 Your Flying News Notice Board. Send me
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Tue 31 Jul 2007 Report by Alastair Florence
Started the day at Monks but after a bit of waiting me Pete C and Gary
P decided we where probably flogging a dead horse. They went elsewhere
and I headed Purbeck way. Had a look on the beach as Corfe church wind
vane was a bit SE but the bay was calm and quiet, tried Knitson, too far
off east. So bit the bullet and walked up Ballard. It felt reasonable
on top and I gave it a go. Very smooth and reasonable lift up to 120-150ft,
had a waft for a bit. Wind seemed to be going more SSE - S so tried the
ridge. Certainly flyable at the risk of a thermic spanking on a reqular
basis. Mon 30 Jul 2007 Report by Martin Foley
Report by Keith Burrdige
Had a good hours flying at Bell today but decided to leave the changeable
conditions for a change of scenery at Winklebury. Tried Monks first but
the wind was still too far off to the west. Grant S stopped by and decided
to give Winkelbury a go. I followed shortly and we were also joined by
Andy F (from Wilton way) The conditions started light but a brutish grey
cloud loomed and things became shall we say active for a couple of hours.
Good practice for active piloting was the order of the afternoon. Two
sites one day not bad.
Report by Alastair Florence
Another very pleasant day on Bell, most of the club there today, we can't
all be retired or on holiday can we. Many of us struggling to go XC with
varying conditions although sky was mostly very good but some proving
it was eminently possible.
Report by David Franklin
Sun 29 Jul 2007 Report by Alastair Florence
Report by Stuart Martin
"The accidental XC" . . . Well not quite, but it started of as a short tandem flight with Dave Winn to get some pictures. A technical hitch, that involved his harness snagging on the quick-out, left me driving from the front whilst he sorted things out and, before we knew it, there I was winding my way up from the hill in a gentle thermal: some things just cannot be resisted. He did the rest whilst I messed around with the camera and spotted the occasional cloud. Wingmen Steve Philips and Dave Franklin accompanied us for most of the way even though Steve got close enough, on one or two occasions, to not require the zoom (which is only 80mm anyway). A few excursions to base-and-beyond (see pictures), at about 4600' asl, and a few light showers on the way. A good day out that ended happily in Swanage. Thanks for the retrieve Mark (that is one in the bank I owe you). Sun 29 Jul 2007 Report by Keith Burridge
Sun 29 Jul 2007 Report by Mark Fisher
Very hot, temperatures in 40`s and thermic over the sea ! Great views at 7000ft. land on beach, have wing expertly packed for a few TL get a beer and cool off in the sea, perfect ! I was flying in just boots and swimming shorts. I was very surprised that only one other solo pilot was there. Plenty of other activities for families, this is somewhere I plan to go to again. http://www.youtube. com/watch?v=e88O1_bBzxQ Tue 24 Jul 2007 Report by Pete Malon
Arrived at Bell with two friends at 11am after deciding the trek up to
Long Mynd might be a bit too watery. It was just starting to get a bit
strong with a couple of pgs and hgs in the air and some thinking about
it on the ground. Kirsty Cameron launched first and got a climb out fairly
quickly, with another pilot on a Nova going at the same time (Sean S?).
I was slower getting ready and the wind had increased a bit so it was
touch and go to get off but I eventually managed in a slight lull (many
thanks to the kind souls who took the strain before that by holding my
Cayenne down during the stronger gusts). Report by Keith Burridge Heard the early message on the site phone so headed up to Bell to check
out the “strong conditions”. Yup it sure was top endy with just a few
choosing to give it a go. Had a couple of lumpy speedbar flights until
the conditions strengthened and all landed. Sean S and a lady pilot decided
to go over the back with the flow and one made Whitechurch (I think).
Conditions eased after an hour or so of watching the hangies take to the
skies and Bell was almost in bloom with floppies from one end to the other.
Ali F caught a good one to leave the hill as all were bombing out in the
big sink preceeded by the thermal he caught. I think he made Durweston
Bridge. Many pilots on the hill during the course of the day including
a couple of guests from the Gloucester (Long Mynd) area. Report by Alastair Florence
Sun 22 Jul 2007 Report by Gary Mullins Arrived just as Russell Whyte landed, proclaiming that it was "b****y
cold" out on the cliffs. So an extra layer was needed. Nice gentle flying
was had by all for an hour or so until the wind backed to the south and
increased. This was when Grant Oseland arrived. He surveyed the conditions
and decided that Ballards was his goal for the day. The wind eventually
eased enough for him to make a "bottom take-off" ! and off he went out
to the cliffs and into the distance, never to be seen again. While he
was gone the wind kept slowly veering to the south-east. So the exodus
began. Steve Bamlett and others decided on White Horse and Russell and
Stookie went to another nearby site. I went home for tea. Report by Paul Ebert
Report by Dave Winn
Kimmeridge Took off in fairly strong conditions and found good height all the way to the cliffs and over to Houns tout. The wind was now back from the west and made it difficult to return to the ridge. After a short walk back up I watched as Ali F did the same but continued on to St a's and stayed over there for a while. I took off again and decided to investigate the tower that has now been dismantled and rebuilt (almost) overlooking Kimmeridge bay. With not much lift on the Kimmeridge ledges I watched as Ali flew back to the ridge from St a's. Scratching every bit of lift off the cliffs, I just managed to get back on the ridge, where we enjoyed seat of the pants thermic flying out in front with over 500ft ato. Not a bad day. Report by Grant Oseland
Awesome flying today at the coast, arrived at Ringstead to find a strong south south west wind and no one out at the cliffs, or in the air for that matter and a lot of wind measuring then took place for the next hour or so with various wind instruments and a lone hang glider took off (sorry don't know who). Decided that despite it being strong I would give it a go so walked down to the very bottom off the hill and took off into strong but still easy to push forward wind strength , I wasted no time and decided that a ridge run was the order of the day as the wind was turning more and more to the south. It took nearly 15 minutes to get to the White Nothe with little hight gain to be had but as soon as I turned the corner onto the South facing cliff I went into orbit at about 600 feet above take off and from there hight was not a problem all the way down to Worbarrow bay. At this point it was decision time to go along the back ridge or push forward onto Gad cliff, I went for the back ridge and at first it seemed to be the right choice as there was still a bit of lift to be had but then it all went very wrong by the car park at Povington hill where I started to take a very large spanking presumably from the rotor off Gad cliff to the front, I went from about 500 feet to kicking the top of the gorse bushes in next to no time so I aborted this idea and about turned back to Worbarrow Bay and took another spanking all the way back to the cliffs, had a quick top up of height then went forward to Gad Cliff which again pushed me up into orbit. It was now that I realised Kimmeridge would be quite possible from here and went on a long glide down the back ridge topping up a bit with the odd bit of lift on the way but started to get pinned when I hit the left hand edge of Smedmore hill (Kimmeridge) which was quite a way out of the wind and touched down just below the normal take off. I thought about packing up at this time but had a better idea and ground handled the wing around the corner just enough to take off again and scratched all the way along Kimmeridge towards Swyre Head which was working nicely and gave me enough lift to push forward onto Kimmeridge Ledges which provided just enough lift to get back to Kimmeridge Bay along the front cliffs, a first for me, but then it all went wrong again and the wind was to far round to the south and I could not build up enough height to get over Broad Bench and back onto Tyneham Cap and after a lot of scratching I nearly ditched in the sea but just managed to land on one of the Ledges and scared the crap out of my self and also two archaeologists who had not noticed me. Still not ready to give up, a quick up pack followed by a quick walk up to Tyneham Cap and I took off again and headed for home, well Ringstead and the car, but was surprised to find that the car park was nearly empty and no one was flying, landed in the top field with loads of height at 17:45 and packed up quite content after having the whole of the coast to my self! Just one question, where was every one else?! Sun 22 Jul 2007 Report by Alastair Florence
Had an early (0815) call from Dave W to say he was airborne at St. A's,
by the time I got out D had relocated to Kimmeridge and was airborne again.
Measuring 17-22 mph on t/o but Dave seemed ok so I just went down the
slope a bit to launch. Sat 21 Jul 2007 Report by Paul Hawkins
Received a phone call from Steve Auld at around 5. 30pm saying it might
be flyable at St Albans. (I have been pestering him to give me a site
brief and see me off from this site for at least 6 months!) Unfortunately
I had an errand to run so didn't think I could make it. . . . chucked
the wing in the car just in case, finished said errand and drove to St
Albans. Had a good 35 min in the air with Ali(thanks for the brief).
Report by Alastair Florence
Nice start to the day but soon turned to torential rain and I really
didn't have any inspiration to even think about going flying today.
Wed 18 Jul 2007 Report by Alastair Florence
I have taken enough pictures of the cliff here for a while so took some of Cows enjoying their grass supper in the valley below, also a cow (the lone white one at the top of the picture) proving that cows think the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence, also young fresians next to the landing field hoping for a taste of XIX paraglider but being disapointed, and final approach to the car park and landing field. Oh for an XC day ! Mon 16 Jul 2007 Report by Grant Oseland
It would probably have been a good day to have gone a lot further down the coast but the ranges were in use so no go this time but Ringstead to Ballards will be mine one day. Report by Alastair Florence
I had a proper days leave today and spent the first 3 hours (0700 onward)
at Bell chainsawing blackthorn bushes off the spur. Still there arn't
to many left standing now, all they need is shoving in a heap and burning.
Sat 14 Jul 2007 Thijs Visser
Report by Alastair Florence
I went up to St. Aldhelms late tonight, nice medium wind speed but off to the South quite a bit so out by the coastguards was working best. A bit cloudy at times but the clouds where producing plenty of lift so quite pleasant. You could see the clouds coming in low over the sea and check there was a clear spot past each one. I made a run for the car park direct from the coastguards with about 300ft ato as it started raining, couldn't really see the ground but guessed direction, lost alot of height and landed with no probs about half way back (the corn has been harvested so nice stubble fields to land in now). Got home just before sunset.
Tues 10 Jul 2007 Report by Gail Otton
Report by Keith Burridge
Report by Alastair Florence
Picture taken on Bell this evening of one of those weird clouds that
crop up now and again.
Sun 08 Jul 2007 Report by Stuart Martin
A rare day at the coast on Sunday (8th July). . . with a seabreeze that reminded me of how it used to be. Plenty of smiling participants boating about in the sunshine. And for those not present. . . a few pictures. Report by Stephen Arnold
Report by Marcus Webster
Report by Alastair Florence
After deep consultation with Dave W we still couldnt decide where to
go today so went to Kimmeridge. Met up about 0900hrs ish, still very light
but promising. It soon improved and Dave and me and a little later Keith
W had a good session in reasonably good conditions with some quite workable
thermals, 350ft ato ish, the whole ridge began working after a bit tho
you did have to work the thermals in places. Plenty of clouds developing
in land and the sky looked great. After a bit Dave went off to Ringstead
to pursue his tandem training, me and Keith felt a change was as good
as a rest and followed suit. Report by Shamus Pitts
As I was sorting out my mess of lines another couple of people turned up (hi Martin and Martin) and I was finally ready to takeoff. As I flew along the ridge, gently climbing, enjoying the sunshine and the silence, I realised that things were a little quieter than normal - my vario was still in my pocket, switched off! I landed, put my vario on, and took off again. In the site guide it says that "when thermic the air can become surprisingly rough" - yep! It wasn't "hold on to the risers and wait for it to end" rough, but it did get quite violent at times! Although the wind was pretty strong, the main lift was provided by the thermal blowing through, and with four of us flying, it did feel a bit crowded at times, so after 40 minutes I decided to call it a day and try somewhere else. Martin and Martin landed just after me, and after checking the site phone and the Condors flyphone, we decided to head to Eype, where apparently it was "bloody gorgeous"! It took me an hour or so to get to Eype, and when I got there the sky was rainy looking, and lacking paragliders - the wind had picked up and everyone was packing up and going home - just my luck! I stopped at Ringstead on the way home to find Martin and Martin, Shaun, Russell and a few others waiting for the wind to die down a bit, which it sort of did. Shaun took off and flew straight out to the cliffs, so Martin had a go and did the same. The rest of us stayed on the ground saying things like "he's having trouble penetrating", "he's on full bar", "it doesn't look too bad", and "he's not moving much", before they both came back and landed. After a bit more waiting I decided it was too gusty and went home. Sat 07 Jul 2007 Report by Alastair Florence
If there was a flying window early today I missed it as I didn't look
out the bedroom window until after it had closed. Report by David Franklin
It was a hanglider day at Bell today with some good flights had. The wind settled down eventually and lots of paragliders were led off the hill by Derek. He was keen to fly his new Golden 2 and spent a good bit of time flying around at the top of the stack. I took off at 6.10 and within a few minutes was lucky enough to get a lift to over 5,000ft and had a very pleasant flight landing near the edge of air space. David Franklin.
Report by Mike Bretherton
I have just returned from 2 weeks in Piedrahita with Adrian Bishop and Simon Herbert and I hear its been raining here a bit. Well it was hot, sunny and flyable there almost every day and a few were of the epic variety. On Big Thursday day the British Open competition set their longest task in history and it was apparently the 5th longest ever valid paragliding task ever set in the world. A race to goal of 154km. Oooh baby not the day to bomb out ! It was a slow start but with eventual good climbs up into Madrid airspace (that’s about 12 grand !) and a reasonable downwind drift, 28 out of 130 pilots made goal. I destroyed my previous personal best of 90km and I flew 138km during an epic 6 hour flight which included several low saves when I was helped by some feathered friends marking a thermal. We made loads of other good flights in completely different conditions every day. I am completely flown out, well until weatherjack forecasts a 5 that is, if ever in this dismal year.
Report by Shamus Pitts Went to Whitesheet for the first time today. I arrived at 11:30 to a
strong and gusty scene, which only seemed to get stronger and more gusty
over the couple of hours I waited. There was nothing on the site phone
to say that anywhere else was any better so I went home. Previous reportsIf you find that some of the earlier pages don't have a navigation menu,
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