Recently the UHPC have temporarily lost access to Slieve Gallion due to lambing season. One of the few sites in the country that take a N/E wind well it is also a favourite of the cross country hounds in the club because there is a lot of unrestricted airspace to the South West. News of the site re-opening to paragliders was gladly received and at least 14 pilots turned out.
Busy hill
The conditions were up and down, either it was working or it was dead. First flight which I was up for only about 10 minutes and got loads of height when conditions were good, then lost all the height and scratched around just above the hill for a bit before finally slope landing when the conditions dropped off again. I climbed back up to the top then sat and had a sandwich and a chat with some other pilots. I was chatting to a fellow IT professional who had experience with GPS and off the back of this conversation I managed to get my phone to record track logs, these might be handy for calculating my height above the hill and length of time for each flight.
Second flight I tried to video but I must have ejected the SD card as I was putting the glasses on under my helmet. Shame because I think I performed a nice top landing.
Third I managed to capture but I had invented a new way to twist my risers so I landed to sort that out. Again another top landing but way back on the hill behind where I had been previously taking off.
For my forth take off I decided to bring my wing up where I was on a fairly flat part of the hill and walk in a controlled manner down to where we were all taking off and I achieved this mostly. When I take off in the video it looks like I am quite close to another pilot, I can assure that it only seems that way and at no time was there any danger of a collision. Good job really because that was the club Chairman. Unfortunately this wasn't a long flight and I landed back on the slope when I ran out of lift.
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