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.

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.