Dungiven. Wind a bit too strong

Today I took a days leave from work to fly Dungiven. I set out about 9.45 and arrived about 11 am as several others were just arriving. The wind was smack onto the hill and nearly too strong to fly. Mike who passed this CP the week after me was already there and he set up and before long he was up and flying. Conditions looked good with plenty of lift so shortly after he was joined by Phil Barron and a student on his tandem, another pilot and finally me.

Michael was the first off the hill.

There were wispy clouds coming and going at the edge of the hill but nothing that you couldn't see through but I stayed in familiar territory just in case it developed into orographic cloud. At one point I was in a bit of mist and decided to use my big ears (which is a rapid descent technique where you pull the wing tips in) in a half hearted fashion but there was no real need. I threw in a 360 degree turn just because I had the height.

After about 15 minutes I thought I would land for a bit as I would have the rest of the day to fly and practising top landings isn't a bad way to spend my time. As I was lining up for the landing I noticed an inch or so of standing water right where I was planing to land so I revised my landing spot as I came in. I used enough control to descend vertically and when I touched down I turned and killed the wing by running towards it and pulling the controls.

Phil's tandem landing was interesting as he called over to myself and another pilot (Jim) to grab the controls from him when he landed. Jim took the controls and ran away from Phil which quickly killed the wing.

Mike had several goes at top landing and missing (well flying back out into the lift for another attempt) getting further and further back over the hill until he was able to get his feet on the ground.

Mike decided he wanted another flight so I stood and shouted wind speeds at him from my wind meter while he chose his moment to inflate and take off. While he was up the wind picked up a bit and Mike ended up landing way back on a flat part of the hill away from the lift.

This was the end of the days flying for me. The wind spent the rest of the day dropping to acceptable speeds just long enough to dupe me into getting ready to fly again and then strengthening to beyond my comfort zone.

I have booked a guided paragliding holiday in Algodonales, Spain so this is probably my last day's flying until  I get there on the 6th October. I am going to try and take pictures and blog about each flying day but I suspect the post frequency will be directly inverse to the number of bars.