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.