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.