23/11/2013

Magilligan

Yesterday an email to our club mailing list started me thinking about where there would be flying today. After a quick look at the forecast it looked like my favorite site might just be flyable. I replied to the email saying we haven't flown Magilligan for a while. It seems I had piqued the interest of a few other pilots wanting to put some time in. By 11:00hrs this morning I knew of four of us that were heading out for the 80 minutes drive.

We left in the rain and there was plenty of rain on the way but as we got closer the sky began to look more promising. When we arrived we could see the squally showers out front over the sea. We checked out both the flyable faces and the wind seemed to be on my favorite side (NNW).

Orographic cloud forming over Binevenagh.
We met up with Dave and Danny and walked down to take off. We could see there was a break in the rain so started getting ready. I watched carefully as Dave (the most experienced of us) took off. As soon as he was out over the cliff he started gaining height so I know I shouldn't have any problems staying up (which is a concern as it is about a five mile round trip to fetch a serial bottom lander like me).

I managed two flights (in between showers). It is a rather difficult to explain what it is like being able to see all the way along this beautiful part of the coast. Whether is it the seven mile long beach of Benone strand, the Inishowen peninsula, a view over Mussenden Temple or Portstewart strand in the distance it is all stunning.


10/11/2013

Not bad for November

This weekend I managed to get flying both days.Yesterday I flew at Dungiven and today I flew at Knockagh which was especially rewarding because it is my nearest site.

It seems of late we have to try and get onsite when the wind is going from nothing to far too strong and snatch what flying we can. Sometimes this is a couple of hours and sometimes, like today you only get a short while.

I got a phone call from Ian letting me know that wind direction was good and the wind strength was not usable yet but getting there. I managed to get the missus home from the shops to watch the kids and drive up the hill (only 1.5 miles away from home as the crow flies but more than double that by road). By the time I was at take off the wind was just about usable. A few minutes later and just as I was doing my pre-flight checks I looked around to see how ready Ian was to see his glider tangled in a bush. So I bunched up my glider and put my harness on top (I didn't fancy picking my kit out of a bush too) and lent a hand. Fortunately I have never had to try to remove a glider from a bush but in next to no time we had Ian free. The wind was slightly stronger now so Ian moved to an easier take off spot a little further from the start of the cliff face. Ian launched and as I watched him steadily climb I rang my wife to let her know I was about to take off as she had mentioned bringing the kids up to watch.



The wind continued to strengthen until I found I was struggling to fly along the ridge so right on schedule my family pull up in the car park as I am heading for my chosen landing field. As my daughter bursts out of the car and shouts "Daddy" all I can do is respond with a wave and a shout that I have to land.




04/08/2013

Two asymmetric collapses

Today I got my first unintentional asymmetric collapse, it swiftly was followed by my second.

Having checked the weather the night before I wasn't hopeful to get flying. Some rain was forecast at each of the flying sites that looked hopeful. This morning I checked my email to see no messages so I assumed that none of the other club members thought it was worth chancing the rain. An hour or so later I checked my email again to find that there was one guy heading to the Mourne Mountains and another group of guys heading to Dungiven. A quick phone call later I had decided on Dungiven as there was a nasty looking cloud sat on top of Slieve Binian in the Mournes.

I arrived to find no-one flying but a couple of pilots in cars at the car park. Conditions seemed to come and go so after a bit of a chat I lugged my kit onto the hill and spent a long time watching other more experienced pilots take of and go up and down. One minute everyone had great height then the next everyone was scratching about struggling to stay up.

I stood and did a lot of watching with a some other low air time pilots. It was a first for me to witness three tandem paragliders in the air at the same time. Eventually the conditions seemed to calm a little and I made the decision that if I take off and land at the bottom then so be it. No-one likes landing in the bottom landing field because someone needs to drive down to collect you or it's a half hour walk up.



I took off into a thermal, as you can see from the video I go almost directly up. I struggle to move forward so with my controls up at the keepers I head of to the right to see what the conditions are like over there. It is a little bumpy so I decide against using my speed bar (which is a rarely used part of my kit anyway). I then experience an asymmetric collapse on the right side. After I realised what is happening I add a little brake on the left and weight shift to the left and the wing recovers. I remember thinking to myself "Well that is my first asymmetric collapse out of the way without incident." Then I get a second collapse on the left side which is about 50% of the wing (the camera doesn't catch this but I certainly did). At this point a fellow pilot Tony gets on the radio to advise me to fly away from the hill but I am still unable to penetrate. At this point I have been pushed back away from the ridge and am in sink so am committed to landing into a flat field only moving backwards very slightly so I go with it.

My mind was full of what ifs while I walked back to take off. I immediately found Tony and thanked him for getting on the radio, I was appreciative of his advice (even though I couldn't follow it).

After about an hour of intently watching everyone's flights I managed to get a pleasant and uneventful flight in of about half an hour. This was only ended when the wind switched to the north and I was treated to a visit to the bottom landing field. Jim was kind enough to come and fetch me and save me having to do the half hour walk up.

What have I learned:

  • Always have a little bit of pressure on the controls, especially if it is a bit rough.
  • If I am failing to penetrate make myself more aerodynamic by streamlining my body as best I can by tucking in elbows, point feet, etc. (advice given by the wise old owl Bertie)
  • Care should be taken over the rocks to the right at Dingiven when you are low and the sun is shining (more advice from the owl).

09/06/2013

Finally bagged a top landing at Big Collin

With just a few short hours to go play I set out for Big Collin. I had read on our club mailing list that a couple of pilots were going to see if it was flyable. As I approached the site I could see that there were already plenty of cars parked up at the bottom of the hill and a couple of gliders out of bags.

I arrived and greeted some faces I hadn't seen for a while. After a chat I climbed up to the top with the plan of taking the first opportunity to top land as I had never yet managed a top landing at this site.

I took off and managed to soar for a short while (which for me is a very rare thing at BC) and then took the opportunity to top land. The wind was such that it took me a little while for the wing to drop me down on the top of the hill almost vertically. After that I was happy to take off and risk slope landings safe in the knowledge that I had finally achieved a top landing at the site that I have probably flown the most.

I got another couple of flights in. One about five minutes long which ended with a slope landing near the top and then finished off with a top to bottom then stuffing my wing in the car and heading home.

I have taken to putting the wing in the boot of the car then packing away on my front lawn when I get home. I find it a more relaxed way of doing things and I take time to check the wing over with less chance of the wind undoing the packing before I have everything in the bag.

07/06/2013

550 feet above Robin Young's Hill

I wasn't sure there was much point in trying to go flying this evening but sometimes plans do come together. There are few places as pretty as the Ulster countryside when the sun is shining and I spent the whole of the drive to Robin Young's Hill near Cairncastle being reminded of this fact.

I arrived to find an empty hill... not usually a good sign. The wind at the car park was almost non-existent... not a good sign either. I was expecting Bertie and after a short while he and Mark arrived. It seems Mark has read this very blog and it had helped motivate him to get back into paragliding after a few years break from the sport.

When we arrived at take off I still wasn't convinced that it was flyable, there was more wind and the wind meter was registering 10 mph. By the time I was ready to fly Bertie was calling out the wind at 11 mph and I still wasn't convinced despite his enthusiasm. I stood (shuffled about) with the wing above my head for a short while trying to get a feel for the air but soon dropped the wing back down to wait for stronger wind. Eventually after several up/downs with the wing I thought I would wait for the next noticeable puff of air and launch. If it was just a top to bottom then so be it, it wasn't like I haven't done the walk back up before. So I launched, turned right and stayed aloft for about 80 minutes, at times 550 feet above take off and ended with a top landing just as the wind was switching and dying.

In the video below you can see The Mull of Kintyre in Scotland, Slemish, the Belfast hills and in the far distance the Mountains of Mourne. This site is also be the location used to film Ned Stark beheading a deserter at the beginning of Game Of Thrones.


07/04/2013

Shane's Hill

Missing out on what sounds like a really tough walk up White Mountain yesterday I was glad to get a phone call from Ian C. to see if I wanted to chance Shane's Hill. Ian had identified a small weather window that would hopefully allow some flying at Shane's Hill before the wind got stronger in the afternoon .

I only got two flights, the first was only a couple of minutes long, a quick run down the ridge gaining lift, then turn back and slowly sink back down for to a top landing almost where I took off. The next flight I started sinking straight away so I headed towards the low end of the ridge. There I soared for a while and found myself above take off again. I pootled about back and forth in front of take off (the guys that were there were not ready to take off yet so I wasn't in any ones way). With the thought of aiming to land in the bottom field near the car to save me walking too far I got quite low and far out the front but several times I was able to regain my height back to above take off. I was at one point soaring a small bank with a fence along it and a thermal helped me back to the top again.

Slowly but surely I made my way down the hill to land by the cars but not before encountering some quite strong patches of lift that a better pilot than I would have been able to use to get back up the hill.

05/04/2013

Slieve Gallion in the snow and retrieves

It was decided that Slieve Gallion was the place to fly today. We drove most of the way up to take off to find that a fellow pilot had grounded his Volvo on a small snow drift that was across the road. After he was towed off the snow we decided not to try and dig out the short stretch of snow which was a good call as when we walked up we found a 10 foot snow drift that must have extended for several hundred meters along the road.

After the fairly long walk through the snow we found very cyclic conditions on the hill. I spent some time taking off only to slope land a way down the hill and have to walk up again. At times the conditions were just slightly too strong to launch and at others I they were to weak for me to keep the wing above my head. See below video of me parking my wing on Walter.


Maurice pulled off the most casual take off into a thermal subsequently leaving the hill in the same lift in such a relaxed manner I was almost sickened (with envy). It was as if he was plucked from the hill and sent skyward.

A couple of times I circled in lift but I soon lost it again, nothing like the sky gods that left the hill before me.

I got a phone call Ian who had driven. He had gone over the back (left the hill in an attempt to see how far he can get) asking to go get him when I had finished flying. So after a bit of ground handling (well ok, struggling to launch in changeable conditions) I got what I thought might be enough height to fly back to where the cars were parked. Unfortunately the height turned out to be far too little because as soon as I was committed to leaving the ridge I hit sink and landed only about 500 meters away. I then had to pack up and do the walk of shame back to the car.

So I got my first taste of being a retrieve driver. The idea is that those that leave the hill eventually land and have to come back to the hill for their cars, unless they can convince someone to bring their car to them. I left the hill in Ian's car to collect him somewhere the other side of Cookstown. On the way to Ian, I had spoken to Dave, who told me that Maurice was in Cookstown, so on the way back we collected Maurice. After we Got Maurice Dave rang back to say he had hitched back almost to the bottom of the hill. We drove up the hill keeping an eye out for Dave and bumped into Billy who had walked back to the Hill from about 10km away (Billy is a hill runner so is extremely fit). Billy had found Dave walking up the hill and given him a lift to the cars.
With a few more bodies at the cars we could get all the remaining cars to their owners. Ian drove his car and I drove Mark's car (he had now made his way to Cookstown) to drop Mark's car. Dave drove Donal's car to collect him somewhere near Pomeroy and Maurice followed Dave in his own car.

Unfortunately half way down the hill I came a cropper, Mark's car ran aground on a snow drift we were previously able to pass. Fortunately I had thought to throw a spade into the back of Ian's car so 10 minutes of driving back and forth, some digging and much shouting of (at times contradictory) instructions got the car through. The other drivers seemed to take a slightly different method to get through , drive at the drift as fast as you dare and hope for the best.

I found my first involvement in retrieves fairly complicated even though I only had to do what I was told as all the arranging was handled by the elated XCers

30/03/2013

Shane's hill, I take it all back.

There were about ten other pilots and all got some fairly descent flying in.

I pulled up to find there was nowhere to park the car, the normal lay-by was full of vehicles, fortunately Colin   was just getting ready to climb the hill and offered to park closer into the verge to allow me to double park and block him in. It never fails to amaze me how thoughtful people can be.

The walk up was easy looking at first glance. A few feet into the field I encountered the first of the snow drifts, this will be fun I thought. Snow drifts soon lose their appeal when they vary up to four feet deep in patches nearly all the way up the hill. I particularly didn't like the way they had covered over the small streams that are I seem to remember being on the hill. I just followed in the footsteps of previous (hopefully successful) pilots.

When I got to the top I spent a moment talking to the other guys on the hill and got my breath back. I started up packing my kit and realised I had left my radio, vario (well car GPS with LK8000 on it) and camera in the car. I stood a while and considered the walk up and whether I really needed these items. Then I thought I could probably do with the exercise. I put my gear in a place where I thought it couldn't roll down the hill and fetched the other stuff.

I got airborne and started gaining height and was soon soaring up and down Shane's hill. I wanted to get across to the higher ridge to the north and thought I had gained enough height to make it across but only managed to land in a snow drift at the bottom of the higher ridge. After a few minutes wrestling with my lines from the heather walked to the top of the ridge and after a brief rest was able to launch and got a fair bit of height. After a while of running back and forward on the ridge losing then regaining height I decided that before the next drop in height I should head on back over to where I took off. I had a top landing that I was really quite pleased with. I more or less flew to where I wanted and put down just shy of the other pilots that were on the ground. This got an approving comment from my my former instructor, Bertie.

After a bit of a wander and a rest I set a flight plan to see how I get on and if I bomb out land by the car and go home. My successful flight plan took a lazy 5 minutes.





03/03/2013

Knockagh

Today I flew at the site we refer to as Knockagh. It is a cliff site located near Greenisland and is easily recognised by the Konckagh Monument war memorial that is over 100 feet tall that is at the car park  The site does have several hazards such as power lines and an abundance of trees which means the bottom landing option can be quite tight. As it is a cliff face it seems to allow soaring in quite light winds. The most important feature of this site to me is that is only a few miles from where I live and I can see if anyone is flying it without leaving the house.
Dave takes off over the gorse
The take off field is very restrictive with large gorse bushes just in front and a line of trees right behind which doesn't leave much room for mistakes in ground handling. I almost didn't manage to get the wing above my head on the first go due to the wind being so light. As soon as the wing was up I had a bit of a run,  dodged a couple of gorse bushes and I was away to join the other four pilots that were already in the air.

During the flight I noticed what looked like the wife's car driving away from the car park. I wondered if the family had been up to wave at me.

After about 50 minutes flying and after all the other pilots had landed I made what I though was an excellent landing in the designated top landing field. Unfortunately the battery had gone on the Go Pro about 10 minutes earlier so it is missing from the below video.


24/02/2013

Agnews Hill

Two new sites in one weekend, that is probably a personal record. Yesterday was Slieve Donard and today was Agnews hill.

Agnews is a hill with a large cliff face to the north west of the A6 Larne line (the main Larne to Belfast road). I have been by it many times on my way to other flying sites and even had a top to bottom on the adjoining hill at the south end which is called Shane's hill.

I arrived at the Agnew's Hill designated parking area to find another member of our club, Andrew changing into his flying gear. Fortunately for me he had flown Agnews before so I could ask him questions about the site.

What I didn't realise was that the route to the top is a near vertical climb, which is good because it means the the site will be soar-able in light winds, but it is a bugger to climb up. As I climbed up I realised that this was going to be the only time today that my leg muscles would allow me to do any exertion as they were still recovering from climbing Slieve Donard yesterday.

While recovering from the climb I checked the wind and it seemed very low, 6-9 mph so I wasn't very confident about staying up. I checked my kit and watched my companion test the lift by inflating his wing and standing with it overhead, after a bit of re-positioning he took off, turned right and flew out of view just about maintaining height. At this point I sat down because I thought I would have a bit of waiting to do until the conditions picked up. The next thing I know I look up to see Andrew way above me. It seems there was plenty of lift to be had above the cliffs. I Wasted no time in finishing my equipment checks and I am up and flying way above the ridge.

After about 15 minutes flying high above the cliffs I decided it was time to warm my hands up so I try a top landing. I wasn't trying too hard and when I had clearly missed the spot I was aiming for I decided that I should fly back out into the lift for another circuit. Unfortunately the wind had shifted slightly and I ended up at the bottom in the bog so I sent a text message to let Andrew know that I couldn't face the climb back up and was going home.




23/02/2013

Slieve Donard charity fly down

The UHPC organised a fly down from the summit of Slieve Donard to raised money for The William Keown trust (Highlighting the achievements and promoting the dignity of people with disabilities).

About half way up several pilots stopped to have a sandwich.


With my kit weighing about 20 KG, this was hard going.
Donard forest and Dundrum bay in the background
One of the things that spurred me on during the last leg was that many hill walkers asked why I was carrying such a big back pack, so of course I had to explain that as a group we were paragliding down. At least three groups of people wished me well.
Summit of Slieve Donard looking North, wisps of orographic cloud forming behind the cold pilots,Irish sea on the right.
Well we made it, I wasn't at the front of the pack with the fit people (which included two pensioners) but I wasn't at the back either. As soon as I stopped I put all the clothes I had brought with me, some estimates put the temperature at -8 C. While I stuffed the last sandwich into me wisps of orographic cloud started to appear. At this point decided it was time to get ready just in case we got clagged in.
Andrew D. is the first to get off.
Fortunately nothing more came of the cloud, which was a relief as I really didn't want to walk down.

Harry the paragliding dog with owner Tony clipped in and ready to launch
 You may recognise Harry, he is quite famous, been on the tele and everything!
Harry on his way to meet his public.
It was so cold that I could only have my hands out of my gloves for a minute before they were unusable. This made doing my equipment checks quite slow. When I did eventually get off there was little in the way of lift, so it was just a big 2,700 feet top to bottom. I did take the opportunity to play with my speed bar on the way down.
Of course we have the obligatory fly down video!

We had three landing options, first was and easiest was the beach as the tide was out, second was the football pitch and third was the lawn in front of the Slieve Donard Hotel. I chose the football pitch and one of the upsides to this that I didn't appreciate until after landing was that I have never landed on such an even surface before. Still, I witnessed two experienced pilots trip and fall on landing, I guess the flat surface put them off.

It is something when you have to be released from your own lines by family and friends.

Last two pilots.
Some statistics:
  • It took me about two and a half hours to make the summit.
  • Only about thirteen minutes to fly down.
  • Summit is approx 2,700 feet above sea level.
  • I counted 18 paragliders (not including Harry).
Everyone enjoyed the experience, and I am sure there will be plenty of money raised. It is not something I'll be doing in a hurry again, and certainly I will wait until warmer weather before I try again.

Thanks to anyone who has sponsored me, expect a visit asking for the readies soon :)

19/02/2013

A Big Collin warm up for the year ahead

I had a great day at Big Collin today, no epic flying was achieved but it was good to get some ground handling practice and a bit of hopping about the hill. I arrived fairly early (before 11 is early for me) to find Merv sat at the top of the hill waiting for stronger conditions.

The wind never really got to usable strength (at least for me) so there was a lot of walking back up from short flights and I got some good practice kiting the wing back up the hill.

After one of my short flights my wing ended up half upside down as I collapsed it and I took the opportunity to turn it entirely upside down and try kiting it in that position, this allowed me to shake out most of the bits of grass and dust that have accumulated inside the wing.

Some of the other Eejits from the UHPC
I was also proud to have managed to walk a good distance up the hill with the wing directly overhead, this is a nice easy way to get back up the hill because if you get it right the wing is pulling you up hill in a controlled way. I managed to just about make it back up to take off although at times it was a bit two steps forward and one step back.

I only managed about 10 minutes airtime in total but it was good practice for the year ahead and in particular the UHPC planned charity walk up and fly down of Slieve Donard, the highest peak in Northern Ireland.

02/02/2013

So that is why it is called White Mountain

I had been watching the forecast for today's weather like a hawk all week and each day it got a little more promising. I arranged to be able to get away early, Ian C. and I left for Dungiven about 10:30. On arrival the wind was on the hill but only managing 6-8 mph, no where near enough. We phoned some other pilots we were expecting to see, they were over on White Mountain with a couple of pilots in the air. So we jumped in the car and drove the 8 or so miles. It is amazing the difference a few miles can make to the conditions.

There was still patches of snow in places all over White Mountain, I guess that is how it get's its name. Usually there is plenty of puddles and standing water dotted about take off but helpfully these were iced over.

We found the other pilots on the North West point of the hill and after a quick greeting I managed to get ready quickly (for me) and set my new Go Pro Hero 3 to record. For the camera I performed a more or less perfect take off. After about 25 minutes flying my right hand was feeling cold so I landed to try and warm it up only to find that the camera had not recorded anything... it seems that I had only switched it on. I thawed my hand and after the pain subsided I tried to ensure that it was warm before I took off again.

My second flight was recorded and was slightly more interesting than the first. The take off wasn't nearly so elegant, though I have had worse and I managed to relax a bit and push out from the hill a bit more. It also ended in hugging the hill at the end and managing a top landing with probably the least amount of height yet.


A nice easy soaring day to start this year's flying was just what the doctor ordered. Bring on the spring.