The return to White mountain (2012)

I saw a message to the UHPC mailing list that several members were heading to Dungiven this morning. I didn't think the wind directions would suit Dungiven, but there are several sites not too far way that would suit the wind direction. After a quick phone call to my boss I was able to secure the rest of the day off. I then jumped into the car and headed out.

Just after getting onto the motorway I realised that Bertie (the guy that was my instructor) was behind me. So after he had passed me I tucked myself in behind his car and travelled in convoy safe in the knowledge that he would probably have the latest information on which site in the Sperrin mountains would be best suited for flying.

Photographic evidence of me flying above my instructor (briefly).

We arrived and to find there were already four pilots willing the wind strength and direction to improve. It was not to be, so they suggested we change site to White mountain. I have only flown at White mountain a couple of times and it hasn't yet had what I can call a good flying day there. With this in mind I followed the crowd but didn't have any real hope that things were going to be any good.

We arrived and everyone enthusiastically got changed into their kit, so I followed suit. Climbed the small bit of a hill and set about my daily checks. Previously I would have been slow to set-up because I would want to see others flying before I got my wing out but I have now released that getting the daily checks out of the way is a good way to spend the time waiting for everyone else getting airborne and you can't over check your flying kit.
Others took off and gained height, so I got myself ready and was third into the air (I think). I got about 8 minutes flying and then came in for a top landing.

Mark and Dave

I took a breather and and calmed myself as things were really looking up. I took off again, this time for over 40 minutes (my longest yet) I was up so long that I had time to try and sit back in my harness and try an relax. Along with trying to slow down while I fly by applying more brake than I usually would, I also started to really try to think about areas of lift when I encountered them. Then I top landed because my phone had been ringing only to find it was nothing important enough to stop me flying.

After a sandwich I took off again, I tried more concentrating on what the wing was telling me, which side of the wing was getting more lift than the other and which way I should be turning (at times this was only a mental exercise as the hill was beside me). I actually spent some time flying out from the hill trying to keep where there was lift. I got another 20 odd minutes air time eventually landing by the cars.

At this point I was feeling a bit tired but I thought I should make good of my opportunities. I took off and again tried to tune into the wing and the lift I was flying through. This last flight was another 20 minutes and I slope landed just a little way down the slope from the cars.

In total I have clocked another hour and a half airtime today and I couldn't be happier with the way it turned out especially because I thought initially there might not be any flying at all today. It just goes to show that you can't tell and you just have to put the time and effort in to get these days. Improvements for the future will be:

• Try to get a continuous hour in the air.
• Get more in tune with the lift I am in (device that will work as a vario/GPS is on order)
• Try to use today's gained confidence to get ready a bit quicker
• Get back in the air a bit quicker between flights to maximise my airtime.

Up and down days

Some days you feel better than others.

Having been disappointed yesterday with a wasted trip because of strong winds at Robin Young's hill yesterday I waited until the afternoon and headed out to Big Collin mountain. I arrived to find several gliders laid out on the hill.

I climbed to the top of the hill and had a quick flight which ended in a slope landing I climbed back to the top and I wasn't really interested in taking off again. It was strange that I had spent all week looking out of the window and now I was on a hill with glider at the ready I wasn't that keen to launch. Other pilots were encouraging me to take off but I wasn't for moving. After a while I decided that it is a bit of a waste to stand around and I got back into things and finished the day with four flights in total. Unfortunately all flights were either short top to bottoms or slope landings.

Slieve Gallion again

I think the fruits of flying six days out of the last eight have been realised today. I felt a little bit more confident about what I was doing. I still found my self checking and double checking my pre flight checks but when I was ready to go I simply checked there was no-one in my way (and that I wasn't going to get in anyone else's way) and launched.

My first flight plan was to get a bit of height and top land, I did get some height, then I lost it, then I found it again so I had only been in the air a few minutes when I was coming in for a top landing. "Top landings, nothing to worry about!" It had been playing on my mind that I hand't performed a top landing completely on my own before, i.e. without the comfort of an instructor on the radio should I not quite get things right. I was glad to get this out of the way.

We were sharing the hill with Phil and a few students (well they were there before us). The wind had moved further around to the West than the previous day and this meant that the face we were soaring was smaller. So after trying to share and fit in with the other pilots I got another flight in with the same plan to top land, but this time maybe keep the wing inflated and relaunch straight away. This wasn't to be as the loss of height meant a slope landing and a short walk back to the top.

Before I could launch again a huge thermal came through, the experienced pilot I was flying with was able to make the most of it but the student (Jim) who was up at the time probably had a bit of eye opener. The instructor Phil talked him calmly through pulling big ears to lose the height he had been gifted. He eventually went on to safely bottom land in a field that seemed miles away.

After I had watched all the fun I realised that there were what seemed to me like rain clouds heading our way so I packed up happily in the knowledge I had now slain my top landing demon.

Not quite read to go home we headed for another site where we knew a pilot was trying to ride out the rain. We parked at the bottom and watched the clouds pass just over the top of White Mountain while we ate sandwiches and tried to spot the hiding pilot. The weather didn't lift so we drove up to Dungiven which was only a few miles away but it was deserted. We were going to head for Magilligan but saw that from a distance that part of the world was also in cloud. At this we headed home but no one can say we didn't try.

New site (to me) Slieve Gallion

A local pilot and I went to Slieve Gallion today ("slieve" is the Irish word for mountain). I have only ever seen this mountain from a distance as I pass it on the way to other sites and thought that it couldn't be that difficult to get to as it is so large and can be seen for miles. This is not the case as there is no direct road to the mountain from the direction that I was approaching it from.

When we arrived there were several other pilots in the car park huddled up waiting for the wind to drop to usable levels, there were also some hang glider pilots rigging their gliders between the car park and take off.

This site is great as there are land-able slopes almost all over the face we were going to be flying. There is only one small fence next to a small crevice that ran from the top of the hill down to the bottom. There were massive green fields out in front of the slopes so I was happy there were so many get out options should I need them.

After a while everyone moved up to the take off and the wind was slowly falling to acceptable levels for the more advanced pilots. Slowly everybody took off one by one until there was just me left on the hill, there were eight paragliders and one hang glider in the air. I still wasn't that happy with the wind levels for a while after that.

Others flying at Slieve Gallion

Eventually after all the hangies had given up and some of the other paraglider pilots had had their fill for the day the wind had settled enough for me to be confident enough to launch. My first flight was several soaring beats then a slope landing when the wind seemed to have given up completely. I was comforted in the fact that it wasn't just me the wind had left down when other pilots landed further down the slop from me. I bunched up the glider and walked back up to take off.

After a short while the wind returned to it's previous strength, with only about 5 pilot still flying I was easily encourages to go back up again. This time the plan was to try and get enough height to top land. Unfortunately I get wrapped up in all the soaring and kind of forgot about the top landing until I had lost so much height I needed to slope land anyway.

It seems after I fly a site for the first time I experience a feeling of relief and of understanding to how the site works. This probably comes from the fact that when you fly above a hill there is nothing hidden from sight, when you can see all there is a lot less scope for surprises.

Big Collin again.

Back at Big Collin today. At one point I thought that I might be sat on the hill on my own as I started to ring around to make sure someone else would be there. I needn't have worried because it seems that if the weather is right, pilots will flock in.

After yesterday's low number of flights I decided to make sure I would get a lot more little hops in if the
conditions were right. To start with I took of from the top to try to get a bit of soaring in. It seems that I fly too far out to get the strongest lift which is right up tight to the hill on this site. This was communicated to me in flight by the pilots climbing up the hill waving me back further towards the hill. Unfortunately by the time I had started taking their advice I had lost too much height and my flight ended in a slope landing.

The wind picked up and others were flying back and forth while I sat, watched and waited for the wind to die down again. I eventually got bored and decided to move further down the hill to do some ground handling and small flights. I got plenty of practise doing small flights that were maybe one or two beats back and forth across the hill before landing, then ground handling the wing shakily back up the hill until I had enough height to go again. All this considerable effort and by the end of the day I was pretty knackered, but I did manage a record number of flights (6) even if they were only smallish hops.

Having watched some of my landings Bertie mentioned that it looks like I am specialising in fast slope landings. It seems I can't get enough brake into the wing when flaring for a landing at speed (i.e. a slope landing that isn't into wind, or a landing in light wind). I will have to practise taking a wrap with my controls before I do my landing flare.

Slope landings signed off

After checking the weather websites last night I had high hopes for visiting Big Collin Mountian today. This morning I looked out of my window to check the wind turbine on top of the hill that over looks my house. It wasn't turning, not even a little bit, simply not enough wind to move the thing. I checked the Met office low level wind charts and they were indicating 10 knots at 1000 and 2000 feet. I went outside and managed to make out some cloud features in the stratus clouds that were as far as the eye could see, but these features were not visibly moving. So I resigned my self to staying in and working for the day.

I sent an email to Bertie just to let him know I wasn't hopeful, then got a reply that he was heading out to Big Collin anyway or some exercise if nothing else. So I phoned him and he wasn't sure there would be any usable wind but as he offered me a lift I thought that I may as well go along. My reasoning was that there would definitely be no flying if I stayed at home!

So a short while later we arrived at the hill where there was another instructor and student plus another pilot already there. The wind was light, but I was able to get some flying in. First flight was a forward launch and with a slope landing, next was a reverse launch with a slope landing as was the third flight. I took a break at this point because if the wind came up I didn't want to be too tired and balls up my final top landing that I need to finish my training tasks. This wasn't to be as the wind had moved around to the west and Big Collin really wants a South to South-East wind to be soar-able. So I finished off the day with a top to bottom flight.

Fortunately I got my slope landings signed off. By my calculations I only need one more top landing and I am done. Hopefully get that sorted tomorrow if the weather plays ball.

Slope landing at Dungiven.

I got a phone call from Bertie this afternoon asking "are you coming out?"

A few frantic phone calls to the missus and work to make sure I wasn't needed for a few hours and I was ready to go. We thought we would give Dungiven a try and see how it goes. While on the way there it looked like there was no wind at all. Another CP student rang Bertie en route to say he was heading down as well.

Waiting for the wind at Dungiven

Got to the site and there were other pilots about but no-one was flying due to lack of wind. Along with the usual horse play when there is no flying, a couple of pilots were gloating about being right out over the town earlier in the day

By the time I got set up, the other student had arrived and I had got my daily checks done the wind had picked up to just about soar-able levels almost directly onto the hill.
The other student went first and was bearly managing to soar and ended by just getting enough height for a slope landing.

I went up next, and the wind picked up a little for me, I managed to soar for a while, then the instructor got on the radio and got me to fly out from the hill to perform an asymmetric collapse. This is where you reach up and grab a A line on one side and pull it until the canopy collapses (or tucks). This is a bit scary because the glider begins turning towards the collapsed side as well as banking. When I performed this maneuver I didn’t need to wait until my instructor told me to let go of the line, I had automatically let go. The glider almost immediately recovered by re-inflating the collapsed part of the wing, and I quite impressively remembered that I am to keep my “hands up” (i.e. do not pull on the controls) and let the glider settle before pointing the paraglider where I want to go next, which was back at the hill for more soaring fun.

A bit more soaring later and Bertie asked me back to the hill for my first slope landing. Wow I can run fast if I have to. A slope landing is across wind and because of this the ground speed is much faster, however, I managed to land and collapse the canopy in an acceptable manner. Yes!!!

So now I can soar, top land, slope land (well I did it once, no reason to think I can’t do it again) and not soil my underwear when the canopy tucks and recovers..... next stop may well be the site I now want to fly the most.....Magilligan, back to where this all started.

Unfortunately the weather forecast isn’t looking good for the coming week (what is left of Hurricane Katia is on it’s way to Ireland, Scotland and Northern England.

On the way home Bertie pointed out that I got a mention in Skywings magazine (the BHPA member's monthly magazine) which was his doing:

More First Flights. Ian Fraser (that is me that is) recently gained his EP qualification in record time (for Northern Ireland) with First Flight Paragliding. Thanks are due to some co-operative weather, and encouragement from Ian's wife, reported to have said she has never seen him so enthusiastic about anything.

 So you heard it here first folks, an Englishman breaking Northern Ireland records. I do suspect that if this is really a record it wont be long before it is broken.