Nick Roberts' Flying Diary

[Nick Roberts]

Friday May 5th



Arrived at Nant y Moel early.  Launched at 11:45,  early cu's melted away.  Wind quite strong and thermals very broken.  Waited until 13:00 for conditions to improve before going XC. Lift seemed to deteriorate but left the hill anyway  ahead of possible seabreeze.  Struggled in rough conditions but enjoyed two great low saves.  Ran out of luck at Ebbw Vale.   Landed at 14:35 with 29km.  Clouds started to form after 15:00: by 16:30 they were the best clouds I've seen this so far this year - Bah!



Ivor and Gareth enjoyed good flying at Talybont in the much improved late-afternoon conditions which lasted beyond 18:00.  

[Nick Roberts]

Rather windy today but Inshore Waters Forecast said the wind may drop to F3 S  in the Bristol Channel this afternoon so I thought I'd nip round to Cwmafan.  Arrived to find it rather strong but it soon dropped and I launched at 13:30.  Soon found a nice thermal above the trees and climbed to 2500'.  Windy aloft.  Drifted away in a  half up for a few km but milky skies not generating much activity in the rather warm southerly.

Landed at Resolven with 11km.

[Nick Roberts]

01/05/06 - A somewhat blustery day but looking at the theyr windsite it looked as though it may drop in the afternoon.  At home, later in the afternoon, I sensed that the wind may be dropping and backing a little from the northwest so I thought I'd just nip up to Graigola (the hill behind my house) and check it out.  It was pretty gusty so I waited a while and took off just before 16:00.  Skies were largely cloudy but a sunny Swansea Valley got me up and away pretty quick.  To cut a long story short, I landed two hours later in a field near Caerleon(64.6km).  And all without getting the car out!  

[Nick Roberts]

Rhiw Wen today.  Pretty windy!  Cloudbase 4000' but only got there once.  Mostly very small thermals breaking up in the wind.  Didn't circle much but flew into wind when bits of cloud came through.  Decided not to go over the back into the "Blue Hole of Brynamman".  Instead, flew crosswind to the west for lovely views of Carreg Cennen Castle then flew east back past launch and across to  Llyn y Fan Fach - very spectacular.

Flew off the end of the range and then down towards Dan yr Ogof.  Landing - very windy!   2hrs 45mins  24km

[Nick Roberts]

A good club turnout at Lletty Siac yesterday(16th).  Eight pilots!  That's the most I ever seen there.  A Cold Front passing through the region delivered a mixed bag of weather.  Wind was light at first and skies cloudy, then came a little drizzle which lowered the cloudbase as it  passed quickly through.  The wind then picked up which made it easier for the lower airtimers to soar.  Cloudbase lifted at the end of the afternoon and we even got some sun on the ground which pepped up the thermic activity but nobody went on a dash for the Easter Egg.  Called it a day just before 17:00 as wind strengthened.  

[Nick Roberts]

Another fine day at Fan G on Good Friday.  Waited in the lay-by with Tom and Steve until the wind started to ease as per forecast.  Went to the soutwest side to launch but had to move around to the west.  Very light thermic cycles coming through for most of the afternoon.  The thermals were very small and quite gnarly as Steve found out after being dumped into the hillside(shaken but not hurt!).  I left the hill after climbing to 4500' but found it difficult to get anywhere  (Should've tried for a little out and return). Later, the wind came in from the southwest for Gareth and Ivor(arrived later) to enjoy some soaring along with Tom who earlier had managed to climb to almost 5000' in the small gnarly thermals while still sporting his red streamer!  Well done to Tom;  pity I'd forgotten to bring my camera to capture it all.  visibility was superb!

[Nick Roberts]

Monday April 10th



Another great day at Fan G!  Wind was northeast in the morning but died off around midday.  Gareth and Ivor had thermalled away from Heol Senni but had landed at Fan G so they were ideally situated to take advantage of the light northwesterly due in the afternoon.  It was very quiet on the hill until late afternoon.  I took off at 15:35 to join a Red Kite in a weak climb which took me up to about 6000'.  It was very cold up high.  Clouds were nicely spaced and it was easy to stay high....well, until I flew to a nice cloud over Blackwood which died away and I dropped  into a brisk westerly prevalent lower down.  Landed on a hilltop above Trethomas at 41km.  Gareth left the hill at 16:20 and landed on the hillside above Pontypool(43km) at 18:40 - that's late for this time of year! [align=justify]

[Nick Roberts]

05/04/06



Another great day in the hills!  Went to Fan G - nobody else around?

Launched into the bowl,  not very good at first - very snotty.  Wind kicked in from NNW after 15:00 so soarable.  Climbed away in blue conditions at 16:00.  Almost decked it at Onllwyn but found a low save and minced along to the Rhigos.  Wafted slowly over towards Mountain Ash.  Found a weak climb in the valley which drifted into a nice lee-sider at Edwardsville.  Climbed to 5500' a bit further on then went on a glorious glide to Cardiff.  Landed on St Peter's sportsfield at 18:20.  51.8km.  Train home

[Nick Roberts]

First big day of the year in the UK!  Windy but not too windy at Heol Senni.

Quickly up and away.  Nice clouds, plenty of sun on the ground and plenty of good thermals.  Cloudbase 6000'(higher later).  Flew to Rhossili in just under 2 hours.  5000' over Worms head(see the pictures in the gallery).  Standing at the bustop - looked up to see Mr Parsons coming in on the yellow and blue Boomerang.  A great day!

[Nick Roberts]

G'day y'all,



Greetings from Sydney NSW,



The week following the comp started off not too great with weather hot but a bit stable.  Conditions improved as the week went on and managed a few nice XC's towards the end but this monday was Big Monday in Manilla - flew 218.8km in 6hrs 30m, landed at 19:20 - nice!



Finishing off with a bit of sightseeing now.  See you all out on the hill soon.



Ciao



Nick

[Nick Roberts]

G'day y'all,



Greetings from Manilla, N.S.W.



Great flying out here, Pre-Worlds all done and dusted.  Five tasks flown, two over 100km.  Made goal twice and two hundred+ km flights in the bag so far.

Looking forward to a week's XC flying now.  It's 35 degrees here, phew!



See you all on the hill soon

[Nick Roberts]

A brisk northerly today so went to Builth Wells - good call Ivor!  Arrived at midday with Ivor and Jon Pope.  A beautiful place to be on such a day.

Wind on takeoff cold and quite brisk - wind aloft bloody cold and rather brisk!  Some usable thermals too: left the hill at around 13:15 with a couple of grand and just kept going.  Max height 4400' amsl.  Hit big sinkhole over Brecon but recovered to climb a little on the far side and enough to glide to lower spurs of Penyfan which mysteriously didn't seem to work.  Landed in field near Libanus.  28.5km on Feb 09th - My earliest ever XC!



Ivor got away too and managed to fly about 10km to land near Erwood.



Float on!



Nick      

[Nick Roberts]

Went to Rhossili on monday with Ivor and Steve J.  Wind not as strong as expected and very smooth from the northwest, backing west and increasing later.  A couple of hours of fun flying on an otherwise bleak and cold overcast day.  Coffee and hot Chocolate to follow - nice !

[Nick Roberts]

Some flying at Fan G on sunday.  Waited a while for the cloud to lift off the top of the hill before walking up to the south west face.  Quite nice to start with but quite limited(just enough room for Ivor and me!).  After a while cloudbase descended to the hiltop so we flew down to land at the Bwlch.

[Nick Roberts]

Some pleasant soaring in light conditions this afternoon up at Heol Senni.  The breeze was somewhat intermitttent but enough for some worthwhile airtime in the sunshine.  Pen Y Fan and the eastern Beacons remained clagged in but the Heol Senni area and further west enjoyed the autumn sun.  Steve Watkins, Gareth, Ivor and "Max Turner" also present so quite a social afternoon really(no fur flying at least !)