looking SE over the Clyde Valley from Tinto
Cold and dark
Not flown for ages but the forecast is good all weekend so time to head for the hills. For those who also like flying in the Scottish hills here are some suggestions for easy, classic and record flights.
Plouf
Sometimes when you catch a plane, get a taxi, check into a hotel, go for a walk, get an unexpected call, check out of a hotel, catch a taxi, catch a tram, meet up with friends, drive for an hour, leave one car at the bottom, drive up, lay out in a rush and get a simple top to bottom it is all worthwhile....
Gruffy, April 2011
Gruffy, April 2011
Sorry Misk!
Trias called another great hill to start on - Meall a Chaorainn which is only a 5k drive from Fort William and forms the SW corner of the Mamores range.
Apparently loads of people have flown there before but none of our group of eight knew anything about the site and our day started with a steep slog up 600m vertical of brashings, bog and heather to find a great take off on the grassy upper slopes.
This was quite a tiring flight with a number of tricky sections but I managed to stay in the air and it ended up as a new Scottish record at 154km open distance or just short of 170km with turnpoints.
What a day! The R10 just keeps giving...
Slideshow is here.
Track log is here.
Graham Saunders' great photos are here (with a much better camera).
Apparently loads of people have flown there before but none of our group of eight knew anything about the site and our day started with a steep slog up 600m vertical of brashings, bog and heather to find a great take off on the grassy upper slopes.
This was quite a tiring flight with a number of tricky sections but I managed to stay in the air and it ended up as a new Scottish record at 154km open distance or just short of 170km with turnpoints.
What a day! The R10 just keeps giving...
Slideshow is here.
Track log is here.
Graham Saunders' great photos are here (with a much better camera).
kobarid open - may 2011
Day 1
Not flown for nearly a month due to the monsoon, harness has had 4 inches chopped out of the (stretched) neoprene pod by my local saddlery (double the amount I asked for), one gps doesn't have any waypoints in it and the other has all its screens set to avoid having the rather useful "dist to waypoint" showing. Not enough sleep - airplane delay means only 4 hours before we get up for task 1 briefing. I curse myself as I get in the air for the technicalities gone wrong but more worryingly something feels wrong about the wing and the air.... what is going on?
I find myself feeling unstable in the harness and in danger of over controlling the glider closer to spin and stall than I usually get (or at least the drops in wing pressure that precede them). Fortunately, I have taken off early in the start window and figure out that the extra inch of opened waist strap is dramatically affecting roll feel (why did I do that while hanging from the kitchen door frame) and my new thicker gloves are distorting my usual sense for brake pressure and therafter I am able to modify my style.
With general lack of focus I let the top 30 get away from me gradually until mid task when I climb high and push past 10 or so to "the green ramp" known as a banker for a soar up with optional rippers.... the lead gaggle have used it just in front of me and from there will only be a short hop to "the green wall" and final turnpoint before a downwind blast into the goal convergence.
But.... easterly high level winds mean the whole valley is working slightly differently from the memory model of last year and pretty soon I am sliding down the ramp and low into a bowl in the partial lee of the valley wind scratching desperately with a yellow axis glider in a space too small for both of us. I choose to leave without much hope of something better but it hurts to look back to see him climbing out and shortly after I am on the deck and about 90th out of 125 pilots. Looking at the tracklogs, EvW who was 40m above when he hit the green ramp had a straight run and came in about 20th. The annoying bit is that I was well above him for the transition to get to the green ramp until the final approach... I just chose the wrong way on to it.
Day 2
Happy pilots on launch as a 100km task is called in the good weather - we are finally going to get to tour the big mountains to the E side of the Soca valley. Learning my lesson from yesterday I choose to top up and climb before difficult sections - this usually loses you a lot of time compared to the lead gaggle but today works great and I overtake them and find myself in the lead with two others for the middle third of the task. Soaring up the face of Krn mountain will stay long in the memory, especially as it was just after my first collapse on the R10 (on 3/4 speedbar). The good news is that it was preventable - I just wasn't paying attention to the glider and was thinking of route choices. I fly the last third badly, missing a couple of key strong cores but still pushing plenty bar and end up 7th. This kind of "xc task" through the big mountains suits my style and its probably not a fair reflection of my level but its definitely nice after day 1.
Day 3
A shorter task is called with an early land by time as there is concern about over development later in the day. A horrible incident on launch to a French pilot (double cravated helicopter to the deck 100m below take off) makes it hard to concentrate at the start but he uses up several of his nine lives and is not seriously injured. The lead gaggle push hard and low for the first turnpoint SW of Tolmin (Kozmerice) but grovel when they arrive there and I join the survivors before we head back for a quick zig-zag of turnpoints at the volcano (Kozlov Rob)and Volce. At only 600m and only 400m above the valley floor the entire lead gaggle sniffs the air above the volcano and decides there is a lifty line across to Volce and despite misgivings and being the lowest of the 8 I go with it and we cross the valley once to the turnpoint and then again to get back to the green wall without losing any height. Still the lowest we surf up and along the green wall but i miss the great climb that pings everyone to base and have to fight headwind to the final two turnpoints but am pleased to come in the top ten again. The other downside of the day is a talented pilot on his first few hours on a skinny wing hitting some rough air near Tolmin and landing in a tree. He will fly home the next day to wife and kids.
Day 4
Task canned while waiting at the start gate ... perhaps a little conservative but nobody grumbles much as the signs were poor although the sky did open out thereafter. One of the minibus drivers who took some of our group rafting earlier in the week takes us rock climbing up near Dresnica for the afternoon. A savage reminder of the lack of fitness paraglider pilots can develop....
Day 5
Day canned at morning briefing due to strong northerly winds. Our group goes for a 7 hour walk to the summit of Krn mountain taking in several other summits first - a spectacular day but very tiring. The mountains are full of signs (shells, shrapnel, shell casings, barbed wire, gun emplacements and even human bones) of the days when these mountains were the front line between the Austro-Hungarian empire and the Italians. At 2250m on summit of Krn Vrh in the mid afternoon the winds are less than 5kph. It looks like the sea air has pushed in from the S to stop the northerlies at low and mid levels.
Not flown for nearly a month due to the monsoon, harness has had 4 inches chopped out of the (stretched) neoprene pod by my local saddlery (double the amount I asked for), one gps doesn't have any waypoints in it and the other has all its screens set to avoid having the rather useful "dist to waypoint" showing. Not enough sleep - airplane delay means only 4 hours before we get up for task 1 briefing. I curse myself as I get in the air for the technicalities gone wrong but more worryingly something feels wrong about the wing and the air.... what is going on?
I find myself feeling unstable in the harness and in danger of over controlling the glider closer to spin and stall than I usually get (or at least the drops in wing pressure that precede them). Fortunately, I have taken off early in the start window and figure out that the extra inch of opened waist strap is dramatically affecting roll feel (why did I do that while hanging from the kitchen door frame) and my new thicker gloves are distorting my usual sense for brake pressure and therafter I am able to modify my style.
With general lack of focus I let the top 30 get away from me gradually until mid task when I climb high and push past 10 or so to "the green ramp" known as a banker for a soar up with optional rippers.... the lead gaggle have used it just in front of me and from there will only be a short hop to "the green wall" and final turnpoint before a downwind blast into the goal convergence.
But.... easterly high level winds mean the whole valley is working slightly differently from the memory model of last year and pretty soon I am sliding down the ramp and low into a bowl in the partial lee of the valley wind scratching desperately with a yellow axis glider in a space too small for both of us. I choose to leave without much hope of something better but it hurts to look back to see him climbing out and shortly after I am on the deck and about 90th out of 125 pilots. Looking at the tracklogs, EvW who was 40m above when he hit the green ramp had a straight run and came in about 20th. The annoying bit is that I was well above him for the transition to get to the green ramp until the final approach... I just chose the wrong way on to it.
Day 2
Happy pilots on launch as a 100km task is called in the good weather - we are finally going to get to tour the big mountains to the E side of the Soca valley. Learning my lesson from yesterday I choose to top up and climb before difficult sections - this usually loses you a lot of time compared to the lead gaggle but today works great and I overtake them and find myself in the lead with two others for the middle third of the task. Soaring up the face of Krn mountain will stay long in the memory, especially as it was just after my first collapse on the R10 (on 3/4 speedbar). The good news is that it was preventable - I just wasn't paying attention to the glider and was thinking of route choices. I fly the last third badly, missing a couple of key strong cores but still pushing plenty bar and end up 7th. This kind of "xc task" through the big mountains suits my style and its probably not a fair reflection of my level but its definitely nice after day 1.
Day 3
A shorter task is called with an early land by time as there is concern about over development later in the day. A horrible incident on launch to a French pilot (double cravated helicopter to the deck 100m below take off) makes it hard to concentrate at the start but he uses up several of his nine lives and is not seriously injured. The lead gaggle push hard and low for the first turnpoint SW of Tolmin (Kozmerice) but grovel when they arrive there and I join the survivors before we head back for a quick zig-zag of turnpoints at the volcano (Kozlov Rob)and Volce. At only 600m and only 400m above the valley floor the entire lead gaggle sniffs the air above the volcano and decides there is a lifty line across to Volce and despite misgivings and being the lowest of the 8 I go with it and we cross the valley once to the turnpoint and then again to get back to the green wall without losing any height. Still the lowest we surf up and along the green wall but i miss the great climb that pings everyone to base and have to fight headwind to the final two turnpoints but am pleased to come in the top ten again. The other downside of the day is a talented pilot on his first few hours on a skinny wing hitting some rough air near Tolmin and landing in a tree. He will fly home the next day to wife and kids.
Day 4
Task canned while waiting at the start gate ... perhaps a little conservative but nobody grumbles much as the signs were poor although the sky did open out thereafter. One of the minibus drivers who took some of our group rafting earlier in the week takes us rock climbing up near Dresnica for the afternoon. A savage reminder of the lack of fitness paraglider pilots can develop....
Day 5
Day canned at morning briefing due to strong northerly winds. Our group goes for a 7 hour walk to the summit of Krn mountain taking in several other summits first - a spectacular day but very tiring. The mountains are full of signs (shells, shrapnel, shell casings, barbed wire, gun emplacements and even human bones) of the days when these mountains were the front line between the Austro-Hungarian empire and the Italians. At 2250m on summit of Krn Vrh in the mid afternoon the winds are less than 5kph. It looks like the sea air has pushed in from the S to stop the northerlies at low and mid levels.
26th April 2011 - Ben Toaig 100km triangle
The day of the highest scoring UK paragliding xc league flights ever for a 92km declared triangle (Mike Cavanagh and Richard Westgate) and the first 100km FAI triangle in the UK by paraglider (me).
But more than that ... what a day!
But more than that ... what a day!
Commiserations to Trias who was so close.
Mike Cavanagh's fantastic pics of the same day are here.
EDIT: The rather long three-way account of the day which didn't make it into Skywings magazine is here
25th April 2011 - Creag a' Chliabhain near Loch Ness to Forfar
a crossing of the monadh liath and the cairngorms...
"do you know any take offs down the farr valley?"
"no"
"going there would put us upwind of the best area according to RASP"
"big crossing to aviemore to start... could be tricky"
"with a forecast this good I think we should take our brains out and just go for it"
"let's go for a look anyway"
slideshow is here
the jewel of Lochan na Gabar in one of the NE coires of Ben Avon
Couldn't resist
Another spring and another dip into the second hand market for a flying toy and 125km for its first flight. What is more it is even nicer to fly than the R09. What a machine!
The flight itself was very straightforward with weak climbs and smooth glides allowing a gentle downwind bimble over the flatlands from our take off at Wether Fell in the Yorkshire dales. It was fun to fly with other gliders all the way - something we rarely get to do in Scottish flying.
I fear I may have done less than my share of the work in our gaggle of four that stuck together until the last few km (ok, ok I pimped horrendously for at least half the flight). This was partly due to the performance advantage and partly due to not being sure of the airspace and needing to stick with others. But it was also because I have done very little in the way of flatland gaggle flying and wanted to see how it worked. The pilot I landed with said later, "I much prefer flying on my own". Haha!
touch down in North Cave in the same field as Dean C
all the lines ... there seem to be a few missing from this glider?
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