Other fun things to do with wind

I wonder how many search engine hits this page may get for people looking for a different type of wind.
We were camping at the weekend in Benone in Limavady (if you get a chance, use the council run campsite, not the privately run one). I did initially think about bringing my wing with me as the Magilligan site over looks the camp-site, but the weather forecast was pants. It turns out this was a good call because it rained on and off all the time we were there. On the bank holiday Monday I got a text message from Bertie (my paragliding instructor) that he was coming to Benone beach with his X-Sail land yacht. 

Waiting on Benone beach.

After we packed away the two tents, we went to the beach to wait for the two retired nutters with their land yachts . The kids started complaining that they were cold, but livened up a bit when the two cars pulled up and started assembling the X-Sails. About 10 mins later the yachts where wizzing up and down the beach. Bertie pulled up in front of us as we watched and asked who was first for a sail up the beach. To my surprise and delight my 5 year old daughter jumped on to Bertie's lap and they shot off across the sand at a rate of knots. That was it then, the 3 boys wanted a go. When it was my son's go he was told that I would be getting a go next.
So the last kid jumps out and I am offered a go (on my own) with the encouragement "Go on, there is nothing to it."

Gingerly I got in, with one minutes tuition, I was racing across the sand with ease. There really is nothing to it, get the wind side onto the sail, gently pull the rope to speed up, release to slow down and steer with handle bars. If all else fails turn into wind and the thing will stop, there wasn't even any breaks to worry about. The yacht travels fastest when the sail is at a right angle to the wind. I think the best part of the experience was when the yacht was up to speed the forward motion seemed effort less.

After a couple of circuits around the ice cream vans I jumped out and let the last big kid (my friend we were camping with) have a go. After that Bertie offered the wives a go, but they declined.

Shortly after this (with the kids moaning that they were cold) we left for lunch in Port Stewart. Over lunch my friend and I talked about how we can convince the wives to let us get X-Sails. Alas I think I need to sort the rest of my paragliding kit first though. Although I have a wing, I need a harness, a reserve and a helmet before I am anywhere near a basic kit, then there is the flying suit, vario/GPS, wind meter and radio. I suspect that may only be the begining of it. At least with an X-Sail that is all you need.

Picturesque Magilligan

Although Dungiven is my favourite site so far for training, Magilliagan has to be seen to be believed. The photograph doesn't do it justice. 5 miles of golden sands and an amazing view of Donegal. Plus this is the site where I got my first taste of paragliding.

The view from take off, overlooking Magilligan point, NI. The mountains in the distance are on the Inishowen Peninsula in Donegal, Ireland.

When we arrived there were lots of other paragliders about. Unfortunately the conditions were too bumpy for me. So I encouraged my instructor to go up and have some fun (no point in both of us being grounded and miserable).


While I sat and chatted to the other pilots that were on the ground, there were a few passers by that stopped and came over for a look. One of them came up and started talking about getting into the sport. Phil (the guy that took me up on the tandem) had recently qualified as a paragliding instructor and was explaining what was involved in training and mentioned that I was training. A short while later the guy came up to me and said he was thinking about buying a wing and trying it himself.... on his own..... with no instructor. I explained that I didn't think that was a good idea, I can see that learning yourself could easily be a dangerous thing to do. It is fun, but boy you have to work at it and I think I would have given up a long time ago if it weren't for the support and encouragement of my instructor and to a lesser degree the other pilots.


After a while my instructor landed and he decided I haven't had enough of the training wing, so I spent an hour on it with me collapsing it in the instructor, myself and most parts of the hill I was running around on. I was getting better though. By this time most of the pilots had gone home but the wind had smoothed out.


Then my instructor decided conditions were probably good enough for a tandem flight. He often carries the club tandem wing and harnesses in his car, so I ran to the car to get the gear and we lugged it down to take off.


Having been briefed on what to do, the wing was inflated and up and I charged down the hill for a bit (the tandem passenger is at the front and does the running at take off) then left the ground, I then landed about 20 feet further down the hill and forged on until I ran out of field and for the first time take off was actually like running off a cliff. At the start the wing was way over to the left behind me, but I figured that the instructor can handle the wing, and would tell me if I needed to stop running. 


So we got airborne. It was great, just like I remembered it, only with a lot less height so the water falls and fields of sheep were a good bit closer. We performed several beats back and forth along the cliffs but we were not getting much height, as we flew past the take off area it was obvious we were going to have to do a bottom landing. We landed in a large field full of cows, except the cows got spooked as we came into land (we were probably the biggest bird they have seen for a while) so they were well clear when we touched down. I completely misjudged the landing so I ended up on my front, with the instructor on top. We then phoned one of the other pilots and they kindly drove down to collected us while we packed the gear away.

The crazy training wing

We were concentrating on accurate landings today at Big Collin Mountain. I got 2 flights in, one from most of the way up the hill which I managed to land within acceptable range of the wind sock, the second from the top which I landed a little further than I would have wanted from the sock.

The wind got a little gusty and my instructor decided that we would do some ground handling while we were waiting to see if the wind smoothed out. He produced a training wing, which compared to the monsters used to lift my bulk off the ground was very small. The problem with smaller wings appears to be they are less forgiving. If you don't give it the correct input very quickly, it will be back on the ground. I managed to wear it a few times. It also ended up on the instructor at least once, good job he has a sense of humour.

The above clip was taken while dodging (and sometimes not dodging) huge fresh cow pats... it sounds like an excuse and it probably is as well as a fact.


Today was a landmark as I bought my first wing, a Ozone Electron in Royal blue and red. I need to remember to take a photograph of it when it isn't in its bag.