White mountain is a private site that the UHPC has permission to fly. It is a peak the the Sperrin Mountains that looks over the Glenshane pass (A6) which is the main route from Belfast to Stroke city. It isn't the tallest mountain in the Sperrins but it is still rather a big lump. Fortunately the private road goes all the way to the top so there isn't to much climbing to do. I have been to this site before but never flown it.
I wasn't too expectant to get off the ground today as it was a typical April day with showers coming and going and the threat of rain was always in the air. However I got a phone call early afternoon from Ian who lives about 2 miles away from me to see if I fancied chancing a trip out. Ian is the club coach that I have been assigned to. I had been looking longingly out of the window all day so it didn't take much to make my mind up.
I managed one flight as the wind was only just strong enough to maintain height if you know what you are doing and it seems I do not. I launched off the hill into a lull then tried to soar back and forth but bombed out pretty quickly.
After a hard climb back up to the launch site and a few minutes getting my breath back Ian came over for a chat. It seems that after I take off I fly out from the hill too far before I make a turn to fly along the ridge. This means that I fly through the strongest lift which is closest to the hill so that is why I loose height quickly in light conditions. I do this because I have difficulty in getting sat back into my harness and need to push forward on the risers just above where they attach to the harness to be able to push myself back into the seat correctly. Next time I will try to turn along the ridge before I get back into the seat, it maybe uncomfortable for a little longer but it will be worth a try to see if it helps extend my flights in light conditions.
I also think I will have to hang the harness up in the garage again and practice getting from an upright position into a seated position. Fortunately I have used some of the recent non flying days wisely enough to clear the garage out so this shouldn't be as hard as it normally is.
22/04/2012
15/04/2012
Squeezed in flight on family weekend
After a great weekend away with my family in County Fermanagh I managed to squeeze in a trip to Robin Youngs hill today. We spent a few days on or around Lough Erne, while driving back I saw a paraglider wing off to the side of the road somewhere around the Dungannon area. On closer inspection it was actually a paramotor but that was enough to get me thinking. It was obvious from the weather that there wasn't that much wind and by the time I was with sight of our home town I had successfully negotiated a trip out if the weather was appropriate when we got home. It took me about 10 minutes to empty the car boot and make the agreed cup of tea before I fire off a phone call to Bertie (my old instructor) as he was the person that was most likely to be in the know about the local flying and he was, he was parawaiting at Robin Young's hill.
Half an hour later I was at the foot of the hill. We chatted for a while then headed up the hill with our kit to winds gusting up to 22 mph. We took the time to walk over the back of the hill to another site (Sallagh) that I have never seen before, this site takes a East wind as opposed to Robin Youngs hill which is a North-East wind. Having spent all weekend with friends that genuinely think that paragliding is throwing yourself off cliffs I was at a site that actually seems to be exactly that, launching off a cliff.
When we got back to take off and the wind eventually died down enough to launch. Bertie's student (Alastair) went first and landed at a wind sock in the bottom field. My flight plan was a bit of soaring and a landing somewhere near the car park for an easy pack up and short walk to my car. Unfortunately conditions were very turbulent which is still something that I am still uncomfortable with. I did do a bit of soaring but I failed to maintain my height. Due to all the rocking around I flew out from the hill and out of the best lift. Before long I had decided to land next to Alastair at the wind sock. By this time Alastair's wife had arrived in the bottom field in a 4x4 and I was able to ponce a lift back up to the car park.
Half an hour later I was at the foot of the hill. We chatted for a while then headed up the hill with our kit to winds gusting up to 22 mph. We took the time to walk over the back of the hill to another site (Sallagh) that I have never seen before, this site takes a East wind as opposed to Robin Youngs hill which is a North-East wind. Having spent all weekend with friends that genuinely think that paragliding is throwing yourself off cliffs I was at a site that actually seems to be exactly that, launching off a cliff.
When we got back to take off and the wind eventually died down enough to launch. Bertie's student (Alastair) went first and landed at a wind sock in the bottom field. My flight plan was a bit of soaring and a landing somewhere near the car park for an easy pack up and short walk to my car. Unfortunately conditions were very turbulent which is still something that I am still uncomfortable with. I did do a bit of soaring but I failed to maintain my height. Due to all the rocking around I flew out from the hill and out of the best lift. Before long I had decided to land next to Alastair at the wind sock. By this time Alastair's wife had arrived in the bottom field in a 4x4 and I was able to ponce a lift back up to the car park.
12/04/2012
Height at Mayobridge
Today is probably the only day I'll be able to fly out of the 4 flyable days we are set to get in a row. Fortunately for other members of the UHPC saturday and sunday are looking good for the UHPC Open which is a friendly competition for those that are at least club pilot with 10 plus hours of flying.
Today seemed that the only people flying were heading to Mayobridge. This is quite a forgiving site and one I have flown before a couple of times so I thought I would tag along. When I arrived at the site I could see other cars parked up and gliders laid out on the north ridge that you can see from the car park.My heart sank because that part of the hill has been pointed out to me that you can fly it but you wouldn't choose to come to this site when there is a north wind.
I changed into what passes as my flying gear and started walking over to the laid out gliders only to see that a pilot was heading my way with his gear all packed up. I asked him if he was packing up for the day, but he was just moving around to the NW side of the hill which was more familiar with. I quickly grabbed the rest of my gear and walked with him. While chatting away to him, it turns out that his was Tony whose blog I follow.
The wind was gusting up to 20 mph (my ideal is a smooth 13-14 mph). After a bit of waiting around the wind died down and I watched as Tony take off, soar about then lose his height in a passing lull and land in a field at the bottom of the hill.
I was up next and planned a bit of soaring then a top landing if I get enough height. I got the wing up and after a bit of a wobble of the left a bit I was up, got a few turns in but no real height, thought about a slope landing then bottled out to the soft boggy area out towards the north.
Quick pack up and climb up. Stuffed a sandwich down my neck then up for another flight. This time I concentrated on turning using minimum input on the controls and a lot of weight shift which seemed to help with the height. Before I knew it I had a stack of height but was enjoying myself and really throwing myself into weight shifting.
At some point the wind picked up a bit and made the turns at each end of the ridge quite bumpy. This I wasn't so sure about so I thought I would move further out from the ridge where the lift would be weaker. This lost me height nicely and made things a good bit less bumpy. I then tried to come in for a top landing but missed, so ended up in my favourite boggy field with a nice soft landing.
With the failed top landing in mind I think I will have to explore the lower end of the speed range on my glider to see if I can confidently get my speed down when I am landing. This exploration will have to occur a few feet from the ground though as I do not need to come a cropper to far from the ground.
Today seemed that the only people flying were heading to Mayobridge. This is quite a forgiving site and one I have flown before a couple of times so I thought I would tag along. When I arrived at the site I could see other cars parked up and gliders laid out on the north ridge that you can see from the car park.My heart sank because that part of the hill has been pointed out to me that you can fly it but you wouldn't choose to come to this site when there is a north wind.
I changed into what passes as my flying gear and started walking over to the laid out gliders only to see that a pilot was heading my way with his gear all packed up. I asked him if he was packing up for the day, but he was just moving around to the NW side of the hill which was more familiar with. I quickly grabbed the rest of my gear and walked with him. While chatting away to him, it turns out that his was Tony whose blog I follow.
The wind was gusting up to 20 mph (my ideal is a smooth 13-14 mph). After a bit of waiting around the wind died down and I watched as Tony take off, soar about then lose his height in a passing lull and land in a field at the bottom of the hill.
I was up next and planned a bit of soaring then a top landing if I get enough height. I got the wing up and after a bit of a wobble of the left a bit I was up, got a few turns in but no real height, thought about a slope landing then bottled out to the soft boggy area out towards the north.
Quick pack up and climb up. Stuffed a sandwich down my neck then up for another flight. This time I concentrated on turning using minimum input on the controls and a lot of weight shift which seemed to help with the height. Before I knew it I had a stack of height but was enjoying myself and really throwing myself into weight shifting.
At some point the wind picked up a bit and made the turns at each end of the ridge quite bumpy. This I wasn't so sure about so I thought I would move further out from the ridge where the lift would be weaker. This lost me height nicely and made things a good bit less bumpy. I then tried to come in for a top landing but missed, so ended up in my favourite boggy field with a nice soft landing.
With the failed top landing in mind I think I will have to explore the lower end of the speed range on my glider to see if I can confidently get my speed down when I am landing. This exploration will have to occur a few feet from the ground though as I do not need to come a cropper to far from the ground.
01/04/2012
Slieve Gallion again
I think the fruits of flying six days out of the last eight have been realised today. I felt a little bit more confident about what I was doing. I still found my self checking and double checking my pre flight checks but when I was ready to go I simply checked there was no-one in my way (and that I wasn't going to get in anyone else's way) and launched.
My first flight plan was to get a bit of height and top land, I did get some height, then I lost it, then I found it again so I had only been in the air a few minutes when I was coming in for a top landing. "Top landings, nothing to worry about!" It had been playing on my mind that I hand't performed a top landing completely on my own before, i.e. without the comfort of an instructor on the radio should I not quite get things right. I was glad to get this out of the way.
We were sharing the hill with Phil and a few students (well they were there before us). The wind had moved further around to the West than the previous day and this meant that the face we were soaring was smaller. So after trying to share and fit in with the other pilots I got another flight in with the same plan to top land, but this time maybe keep the wing inflated and relaunch straight away. This wasn't to be as the loss of height meant a slope landing and a short walk back to the top.
Before I could launch again a huge thermal came through, the experienced pilot I was flying with was able to make the most of it but the student (Jim) who was up at the time probably had a bit of eye opener. The instructor Phil talked him calmly through pulling big ears to lose the height he had been gifted. He eventually went on to safely bottom land in a field that seemed miles away.
After I had watched all the fun I realised that there were what seemed to me like rain clouds heading our way so I packed up happily in the knowledge I had now slain my top landing demon.
Not quite read to go home we headed for another site where we knew a pilot was trying to ride out the rain. We parked at the bottom and watched the clouds pass just over the top of White Mountain while we ate sandwiches and tried to spot the hiding pilot. The weather didn't lift so we drove up to Dungiven which was only a few miles away but it was deserted. We were going to head for Magilligan but saw that from a distance that part of the world was also in cloud. At this we headed home but no one can say we didn't try.
My first flight plan was to get a bit of height and top land, I did get some height, then I lost it, then I found it again so I had only been in the air a few minutes when I was coming in for a top landing. "Top landings, nothing to worry about!" It had been playing on my mind that I hand't performed a top landing completely on my own before, i.e. without the comfort of an instructor on the radio should I not quite get things right. I was glad to get this out of the way.
We were sharing the hill with Phil and a few students (well they were there before us). The wind had moved further around to the West than the previous day and this meant that the face we were soaring was smaller. So after trying to share and fit in with the other pilots I got another flight in with the same plan to top land, but this time maybe keep the wing inflated and relaunch straight away. This wasn't to be as the loss of height meant a slope landing and a short walk back to the top.
Before I could launch again a huge thermal came through, the experienced pilot I was flying with was able to make the most of it but the student (Jim) who was up at the time probably had a bit of eye opener. The instructor Phil talked him calmly through pulling big ears to lose the height he had been gifted. He eventually went on to safely bottom land in a field that seemed miles away.
After I had watched all the fun I realised that there were what seemed to me like rain clouds heading our way so I packed up happily in the knowledge I had now slain my top landing demon.
Not quite read to go home we headed for another site where we knew a pilot was trying to ride out the rain. We parked at the bottom and watched the clouds pass just over the top of White Mountain while we ate sandwiches and tried to spot the hiding pilot. The weather didn't lift so we drove up to Dungiven which was only a few miles away but it was deserted. We were going to head for Magilligan but saw that from a distance that part of the world was also in cloud. At this we headed home but no one can say we didn't try.
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