Wow, what a day.

Being fathers day I got first dibs on the family car and a few other pilots were making noises about going out to Magilligan. I have had my sights set on bagging myself a flight or two at Magilligan since I first took to the sky on a tandem experience flight 14 months ago. I checked with my local friendly club coach and he confirmed that there were at least two other pilots heading to Magiligan with the hope (ever hopeful) of flying.


So after getting my fathers day gift of a beanie hat and a couple of T-shirts (note that there was not a sock in sight) I jumped in the car and spent an hour and a quarter getting to the the site. I was only there a few minutes when I recognised some faces pulling up to check out the wind. A few minutes later wiser men than I had decided that the north west face would work best under the given conditions.

Several of us went down to the take off area right down at the front of hill and the wind was blowning just a little bit on the strong side for me so I was happy to sit and watch fellow pilots take off. The other guys seemed to be doing well in the conditions and the wind seemed to drop off a little so after consulting with a couple of the club coaches I felt confident enough to have a go.

With my daily checks done and pre-flight procrastination complete I stood and watched another low air time pilot take off and gain height immediately. So a few minutes later the air in front of take off was clear and I got airborne. A long missed feeling of gaining height immediately hit me as I cleared the edge of the hill. I went through the mental exercise of reaching for my reserve parachute because for the first time in ages I was going up. I aimed for the East cliff face and made it easily gaining height all the way. I continued along the cliff face for about a mile. It was great, I was properly free flying for the first time in months and it took me right back to the feeling on the Tandem where I just wanted to be in control of the glider... well here I was totally in control of my own kit flying, looking down at the road, the railway and the beach below. I was well above the birds and staying there.

I then decided to come back the way I had come and pass take off and head around to the West cliff face.
I soon decided to make sure I wasn't in danger of getting blown too far around the cliff face that I wouldn't be able to get back, but there were no such problems. The plan would have been to have several goes at flying further around the cliff face checking out my ability to penetrate back to where I started. I decided against my plan as I was happy just floating about.

It is not not close enough to see the look on my face, but my bet is that it is priceless.

After about what I think was half an hour my right arm was beginning to ache, probably because I was so tense, so I thought I would try to top land, this site is a bit of a pain for bottom landing as the round trip in a car is about 4 miles and there isn't much chance of climbing back up. No-one wants to bottom land unless they absolutely have to. I managed to end up about half way between the car and the take off which I was pleased with.

After a drink of water and a stomp around the hill chatting to fellow pilots I realised that if I wanted another flight I would have to go up soon. The wind had dropped since the last flight but I could see other pilots still able to work with what was there so I took off. Again I headed off to the East cliffs but the lift wasn't as strong. When I made it to the east cliffs I am guessing I was about two thirds of the way to the top. Once I was properly along side the cliff I tucked in a little closer to get the best lift I could and before long I was again up above the cliff happily floating along. Although there was enough wind to stay up above the cliff faces the lift wasn't as strong in front of take off, so I decided to top land as I was running out of time to make it back for dinner. I had lost a lot of height coming off the East cliff face but managed to come in at the bottom of the of the huge field use as take off and landing. It seems I was lucky to come in when I did as I saw a couple of pilots take off as I was packing away and as I was leaving the site I heard that they had to bottom land.

Below is the GPS track log of the second flight. 7.95km is the total distance and 26.5 minutes duration and this was the shorter of the 2 flights.


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Today was the best yet so far in my short paragliding career. I am sure that my day would not have been so enjoyable without the great and tireless effort of the club coaches and everyone else who chipped in. Two long (for me) soaring flights at probably the prettiest flying sight in Northern Ireland. It was great to see so many pilots (I counted fourteen) all enjoying the sky.