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.