Slieve Gallion, an unexpectedly good day

It seems like forever since my last flight which was a top to bottom from Slieve Donard and before that was Annecy.

Last night when I looked at the forecast I was unsure that there was promise. This morning while I was contacting pilots that might be flying I got a call, then all of a sudden there was three of us with enough confidence (misplaced or otherwise) to head out. After a furious hunt for equipment which was unsuccessful for several items I was in the car on the way to collect Ian and Colin.

We were just starting the drive up to the top when we got a message to say it was flyable. Just as we came in view of the take off we could see a glider popping in and out of wisps of orographic cloud that was forming around take off. A few minutes later the cloud was gone and a few minutes after that so had the wind and the few gliders that were in the air were back on the ground.

There was a while where everyone else had landed and I was flying on my own, this is usually when I decide to land just in case everyone had landed for an reason unseen by me. The wind had picked up a bit but I still had a small amount of forward penetration and the worst out come from being blown back could be a bit of a walk so I stuck with it until my hands we cold enough to bring me in. I eventually managed a slow descent without any forward movement.

At this point I would have been happy to go home, when I checked with Colin and Ian they were game for one more flight. We also decided to see if we got enough height to land close to the car park. The car park is about quarter of a mile from the side of Slieve Gallion that we were flying today.  The cherry on the cake was I landed closest to the cars.

SIV on Lake Annecy

I am just back from a SIV course in Annecy, France with a company called Flyeo.

Three of us from the UHPC went out to do a couple of days on a SIV course and a couple of days flying in the Annecy Region. I had a bit of an idea about what I would be in for but I am glad to say that Flyeo exceeded all my expectations. Our instructor was Fabien Blanco who I later found out not only owns Flyeo but trains the French acro paragliding team.

The eight of us on the course started with a relaxed but attention holding general briefing. You are told to take off then fly out over the south end of Lake Annecy where Fab (as he is also happy to be called) will talk you though exercises on the radio from a speed boat on the lake below. Then Fab spoke specifics with each of us about our abilities and where we wanted to take them. My agreed plan was to start with pitch oscillations, braking the last dive. Once we had all been infected with Fab's enthusiasm we set out for the take off at Col de la Forclaz. The wind at take off was non existent but we were soon told that the wind at the landing field was 30 kph (just over 18 mph), so we set off back down the hill to be told, no flying today but to be at the Flyeo premises for 7 am the following morning. Fortunately we were staying in a gite just around the corner.

The second day was more productive with all of us getting at least one flight. During my pitch oscillations, which is just rocking the glider backwards and forwards by synchronised braking and releasing, I was amazed to find how far down I can push the controls when there is energy in the glider. After each flight Fab discusses what you did and didn't do in an encouraging way then plans your next exercise, at no time are you pushed beyond what you feel happy with. At the end of each day you review a video of you performing the exercises which I found an immensely helpful educational tool.

The third day I started with tight 360's with rapid exit. This is just a tight turn that you exit when the glider starts to face the lake, you simply apply opposite controls which will bring you out of the turn, then opposite controls again to straighten up the glider, then hands up and wait until the glider starts to dive, then a big bang on the controls to stop the dive. It sounds confusing but after Fab has explained while giving you a visual demonstration you soon get it, you also get the impression he will happy show you over and over as many times as you need to get the idea. I was again amazed at how much and how hard you can pull the controls when the glider has plenty of energy (as it does after exiting the tight turn).

Next Fab got me to move onto maintaining control with an asymmetric collapse, this was fairly easy as you just grab the A lines on one side and pull them down then apply opposite brake to counter the turn.

We then moved onto asymmetric collapses allowing the glider to turn then recovering using opposite brake, this was fun but again demonstrated to me the immense pressures involved when the glider gathers energy. I had a bit of a struggle pulling and holding the asymmetric collapses in especially while exiting the turn and often I just let go while exiting. This is comforting to realise just how resistant the glider is to collapses.

I can't begin to scratch the surface on all the information we were given during this course but Fab went to great lengths to explain why we were doing these exercises and why we were doing them the way we were. He answered questions easily and succinctly often showing you the arm movements involved while facing this way and that demonstrating which way the glider and you would be facing. One of the most helpful habits I am still trying to adopt is that lying back and being relaxed in the harness. This isn't the first time I have heard this, Bertie used to mention it all the time but nothing hammers home a point like seeing the videos of others being able to play their gliders like a harp while sat back then watching a video of yourself spend far too much time and energy trying to sit upright when you should be controlling the glider.

The three of us had planned to spend a couple of extra days in the Annecy area flying and had booked into Irwyn Jehu's Maison du Moulin bed and breakfast. The upside of this is that Irwyn is more that happy to share his extensive paragliding (and mountaineering) knowledge of the area with anyone who wants to stay with him. Irwyn came up with many potential plans for us but the most ambitious was to get the sky lift to the top of Mont Blanc, climb/walk 20 minutes to an area where you can take off and fly down, lacking the mountaineering skills and cold weather gear we declined his kind offer so he went without us and flew is daughter in a tandem.

Unfortunately the following two days flying consisted of little more than a couple of top to bottoms. We had plans to take off at Forclaz and fly across the valley (and lake) to connect with the other side that had been in sun all day, then climb out. We tried this on our last day but were not gifted with a climb when we arrived on the opposite side of the valley. It was interesting to see how much lower I arrived on the other side of the valley than my two friends despite trying to make myself as aerodynamic as possible while going across the valley. It really is time I got a newer wing.
Of course within a few minutes of landing I spotted a group of birds circling up in a climb right where we had just flown over a campsite, it is all in the timing I suppose.

Now all I need to do is to convince the missus that I need another SIV course next year.

Mullaghdoo, a new site.

Today a last minute decision to go out with the clubs Cross Country hounds got me an introduction to a new site called Mullaghdoo. It is a mountain in the middle of the Sperrin Mountains.

Active "Simpson's" sky

I spent most of the day simply trying to stay off the ground while two of the other four pilots managed to get away from the hill, one of which ended up with landing in Buncrana in County Donegal.

I am quite proud of the fact that I didn't give up at any point today. I did wait until I saw all the more experienced pilots take off today but there was good reason as at the start of the flying the conditions were very thermic and the big boys were being knocked about. I took off after I realised things had calmed a little. Even when I was on the ground I didn't really fart about, I got straight back in the air as soon as possible.

A video of my day.

Things I (re-)leanrt today:

• I need a flight deck.
• I need a new wing.

What did you do in your lunch break today?

Yep, today I achieved something I have wanted to do since I first started training to become a paraglider pilot. I nipped out for a bit of a fly at lunchtime. Having got stuck in to all those thermals yesterday gave me the confidence to drive to my nearest flying site, have a fly about, land and go back to work. Of course flyable weather was also a requirement.

Leisurely lunchtime flight, as you do.

What did you do in your lunch break today?

Spring thermals at White Mountain

Today must have been one of the most days demanding I have ever spent paragliding. Not only the mental demands of flying with many others in thermic conditions, physically my back and shoulders ache from operating my controls in my attempts to stay in the thermals. It has to be said that I am still not exactly relaxed when flying. I think I have a good few more air hours before I can really relax back into my harness and react in a calm and confident manor but I am working on it.

Things didn't start on a positive note, when we arrived at site we found the padlock on the gate had been tampered with and it seems someone had broken something off in the lock. Resigned to the fact that the lock would not be soon fixed, four of us started the walk up the hill expecting the others to follow. It wasn't until we had walked the 30 minutes or so to the top that we found out from other club members that appeared looking fresher than us that the farmer arrived minutes after we set out to sort the lock problem.

In very little time the air was full of gliders whizzing about making the most of the thermals. When I was happy that there was enough vertical separation between me and the other gliders I launched and was soon sharing thermals with the other pilots. I had made the mistake of doing up the velco on the neck of my new flying suit which kept catching as my head whipped around to try and keep track of everybody.

Several times I was turning around thermals with other pilots, desperately trying to look like I knew what I was doing and probably just getting in their way but the sky is a big place and at times there was plenty of lift to go around. On at least on two occasions my circling had taken me way back over the hill but somehow I wasn't able to keep track of the lift. I was also aware that I was missing my GPS that can sometimes point you in the right direction when you lose a thermal (I managed to leave it in the car at the bottom of the hill).

I after all the lift I had clearly squandered I found myself back at the ridge scratching around for lift but there wasn't enough. In a few moments there were 3 of us landing back at launch because we couldn't stay up. I took this opportunity for a bit of a breather while the other pilots took off in the next thermal that come through. This was probably my downfall, it has been said before that this is the point that everyone will clear off on a cross country and leave you, well they did. Seven pilots went cross country. I managed to get a couple more flights in and at times I had loads of height, I even tried just following about one of the experienced pilots that arrived a little later then everyone else who is a bit of a XC hound but this just proved that the the best of the day was over.

Oh well my quest for my first XC continues. As payment for my tardiness I got to help out with the retrieves. You would think that people would be grateful to be collected when you drive out to fetch them in places you have never been before but you would be wrong where one certain Scottish individual was concerned. I may be wrong but perhaps "Where have you been? Doing research for the tourist board?" is as close to a thank you an English man can expect from a Scotts man.

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.

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.

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).

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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 :)

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.

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.

Mayobridge

Last night I sent an email to the club email list to see if anyone was going out as today's weather looked promising. I sorted the kids out with their morning activities while I had my eye on Magilligan but when I checked with Phil who is based up that way it turned out to be too strong and Phil was heading for Portrush sand dunes.  I phoned Bertie, after umming and arring we decided to go to Mayobridge as we knew there were already people flying there. By the time I collected Bertie we had gained another passenger, Bertie's student Alistair, the more the merrier.

As we passed out the south side of Rathfriland we could see three gliders in the air at the high ground we refer to as Mayobridge as that is the name of the town that you can see to the NW when you are flying there.

By the time I had been blown around the hill a bit attempting to launch a couple of pilots left the hill for a chance at flying along to the Mourne mountains. We spotted a curtain of rain heading our way so we packed away our wings to stop them from getting wet only to watch the cloud miss us to the west. Conditions calmed down after the rain clouds had passed. I decided wait until Alistair got airborne because he only had "Dealing with a asymmetric tuck" and two top landings to tick off on his list of tasks towards his Club Pilot qualification. Knowing this, when I got airborne I could barely fly for watching him on his top landings.

I got myself an easy 20 minute soaring flight to recharge my batteries and I am glad to say that Alistair got those tasks completed. I am on the Blue Ozone Electron in the video.

Day 5 at Algodonales

Today is the first day that we have had significant cloud cover.

Morning view from Flyspain's Eagles nest.

The first flight I got today was a cracker as it included a couple of firsts. At one point I was 1800 feet above take off, over 3300 feet above the landing field, that is over a kilometer. Again I got a touch of the wobbles when I realised how high I was. While being bumped about I looked at my GPS to find I was in lift that was +4m/s.
At one point I was even joined by a hangglider who wanted a piece of my thermal. I watched him start circling below me and decided that he would soon out climb me so I did the correct thing and left him to it and rejoined the lift after he was above me. It wasn't long before the hangie moved on to look for other lift and I couldn't help chuckle when I saw him sinking in the distance as I continued to climb. I did eventually decide to leave the lift when I estimated I was about 200 feet below the cloud above me that was clearly the source of my lift. I thought it is all well and good climbing above everyone near me but I wasn't quite ready for the off chance I would be sucked into a cloud.

Best Flight yet, lots of curly thermalling

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My mate Karl was in the queue behind me at launch and took the following video.

Apart from giving you a feel for how busy take off can be you can see at 1:45 I launch with someone else's wing tucked in my lines. It was my fault as I should have checked everything was clear before launch and again while launching. I didn't even know what had happened until I landed and Karl told me (and yes I do look like a right dork!)