Jon Moore's 2007 Flying Diary

[Jon Moore]

Well, November has been a surprise! Flyable days have numbered 3 so far and we're only halfway through the month.

2/11/07
From Dale and a 2.5 hour coastal tour up to Whitesands Bay and including the north coast from St Davids Head to Abereiddy.

3/11/07
From Cleggars Bridge (near Lamphey), again 2.5 hours but this time to Frenni Fawr, Mynydd Cilciffeth and back to Cleggars. Beautiful sun drenched cloudscape along the north of Mynydd Preselli encouraging a climb through the cloudless gaps to get a really dramatic view.

15/11/2007
Cleggars again with a nice SE breeze to give some light lift along parts of the coast during a flight to Laugharne (obviously avoiding all active Danger Areas). Rather cold on the return to Cleggars at 2000' after 2 hours airtime!

[Jon Moore]

Very pleased to hear that Nick is back in the air again.

September and October haven't provided particularly flyable weather for me. Only 2 outings in September with a total airtime of 1.25 hour and then October provided 6 hours flying, mostly in the first week! Can't really expect much improvement from now through to January when February 'usually' gives better flying days.

Jon

[Jon Moore]

Update for August

Not much flyng in mid August but manage to get airborne this weekend.

25/08/2007

Very interesting met conditions with a stationary bank of sea mist surrounding large parts of the Pembrokeshire coastline. Good fun flying above the mist and around the edges in bright sun. Around Saundersfoot and Tenby it looked almost like the Med, not a cloud in view and sparkling vis! Unfortunately the camera batteries decided to die, so no photos -again. 3 hours airtime.

26/08/2007

10 knot north wind forecast at 1000' , 2000' and 5000' making it a good day to go up to Cardigan and maybe get some soaring on Mynydd Preseli on the way there (or back). After some low level lumpy air around Narberth, very smooth and expansive lift was encountered which continued all the way to the reservoir at Llys y fran and got me up to 3800' amsl. Anyway I'll now include copy of an email I had from Steve J and my reply to complete the story.

"Hi Jon,
Just wondering if that was you up high above the Preselis yesterday at about 5pm ? Pilot looked too prone to be a microlight, wingtips also swept back like a HG. I was walking on the summit of Carn Ingli in a 30 mph northerly.
Maybe one day I'll get to fly Preseli (north); always howling when I arrive there.
Regards,
Steve J"

"To Steve J:
That's very interesting - really 30 mph! At 3000' the wind speed was only 10kts or so from the North but I had battled against slightly stronger winds on my way up to Mynydd Castlebythe . After passing over Cerningli I continued east and then flew out over Poppit Sands near Cardigan in glass smooth conditions. All that height I had was achieved in smoooooth expansive lift before I reached Mynydd Preseli, not by engine power. I'd planned my return to Pembroke via Frenni Fawr near Crymych to avoid the mountains but as I had so much altitude I changed my route to fly directly over Foel Cwmcerwyn (1759') at 3500' amsl which I thought would be plenty high enough to avoid any lee-side turbulence. Was it hell! I had the worst thrashing of my life and it started whilst I was still overhead the mountain and continued for several minutes - felt like ages of course! Nice and strong these modern hang gliders - might have been a different story if I was flying a ppg? Very glad I had my reserve onboard just in case. I'm sure now that there was wave lift and rotor about that evening and I must have got below a standing wave and into the rotor under it. I remained well above the summit all through the spell of severe turbulence."

I think I'll be more careful in future if I think there's wave about! Still, another very pleasant flight and 3 hours airtime covering 65nm (120K).
 

 

   

[Jon Moore]

July / August update:

18/7/2007, 19/07/2007, 28/07/2007

Made a number of 'local' flights on these 3 days, took a few pics in periods of good sun but rushed back to my landing field on 2 occasions as the weather 'closed in'.

31/07/2007

A brilliant forecast for light winds up to 2000' and decided to put a long planned flight into action - flying from Pembroke to a field 8 miles north of Aberystwyth and back in one day. Arranged landing field and fuel with Patrick Laverty (another SPHG pilot) and got airborne by 10am arriving at the landing site within 2.75 hrs. A quick pitstop for fuel and lunch and off again south to Pembroke. Total distance flown 222 kilometres with 5.5 hours airtime.

08/08/07

Test flights after carb overhaul and ground adjustments - took 2 short circuits with further adjustments to get the engine really on song. Good for take off and landing practice!

Made a very pleasant trip north to the Preselli Hills and then west to Newgale. Picked out a cloud street to take me home to Pembroke from there with minimum use of the motor but Haverfordwest ATZ intervened. Made a detour south of the airfield and then joined another street before things fizzled out as the coast had an influence. Had some really cracking climbs to cloudbase.

11/08/2007

The forecast SSW breeze came in a bit stronger than expected so motor glided along to Marros via the scenic coastal route via Tenby and Saundersfoot to check out the ridge. Found useful lift all along the coast between Marros and Amroth. It's years since I soared this site. Made slow progress back to landing at Hodgeston as the wind had gone more to SW and increased, also very turbulent at times.

Weather looking poor for the next few days or the week?     

[Jon Moore]

Update for June/early July

10/06/07

Good weather and a 2 hour flight from Dale to Templeton and return.

23/06/07 to 01/07/07

Last minute decision to join an eight pilot Bivvy Tour of France guided by the Flylight Team. We visited nine ULM (Ultra-Leger Motorise) airfields, pitched and broke camp seven times and flew 440 km in 2 legs. The first from Montmorrilon to Blois in one day and the second from St Nazaire to Bernay took 3 days. All together very enjoyable even though the weather was poor but then not as bad in the UK over the same period!

07/07/07

Good afternoon's soaring at Rhosilli in the company of 8 pgs and 5 hgs. Managed to get my Avian Amour glider up to much higher speeds than usually possible in straight and level flight due to the excellent ridge lift. Actually met a SWWSC member flying a hg! - Roger Williams from Sweden?   

[Jon Moore]

Not too  much has happened so far in May, my best fields are closed off for hay and I've badly misread the weather forecasts! June has to be better.

04/05/07

Three circuits at Hodgeston (where the grass is getting too long) waiting for cloudbase to lift and the visibility to improve. Unfortunately it didn't, so packed up!

20/05/07

A pleasant 3 hour 100km tour to Strumble Head, Fishguard, Dinas, Newport and Brawdy, taking the picturesque coastal route from Newgale back to Dale.  One cloud street stretching from St David's to Mynydd Preseli provided useful lift on its sunny side.

21 to 23/05/07

Lots of heavy metal flying at very low level in three separate foward air control exercises all round Pembrokeshire. No flying!

Jon

[Jon Moore]

08/04/2007

Had to service the carburettor and so made a short local check flight around the Angle peninsula. A pleasant 75 minutes of sight seeing followed by 3 circuits and landings to explore the nil wind landings with the Amour glider.

11/04/2007

A good forecast and a flight plan for an O/R to Paxton's Tower routing via Clunderwen and Llanddarog on the outward leg and Laugharne, Red Roses and Templeton on the return to Hodgeston. A very thermic flight in mostly blue conditions. Arrived over my landing field at 3500'. 126 Kms in 3 hr 10 minutes.

Glad you all had a very successful Easter XC weekend.

[Jon Moore]

Latest flight update

24/03/2007

A good weather window to check out the Amour glider on its first long flight. Pembroke to Newcastle Emlyn then St Clears and back to Pembroke via Templeton making 105 km in 2.5 hours.

4/04/2007

Flew from Pembroke up to Mynydd Preseli hoping that the northerly breeze might make it soarable and on the way found some strong lift that broke through the inversion layer at 3000'. At that altitude the air was super smooth but the wind speed too high to make suitable speed over the ground! (May have been wave?) Found no lift on the ridge though, so I headed west to Brawdy/Newgale and returned to Pembroke via the west and south of Haverfordwest ATZ. 93 km in 2.25 hours.

5/04/2007

Lighter winds forecast for today so took out the 'old' Target glider for a spin and repeated yesterday's flight plan in reverse with a sightseeing extension to St Davids! Found some nice thermals thanks to the seagulls marking them but didn't bother trying the Preseli ridges this time. 100 km in 3 hours.

Hope you all have an enjoyable Easter XC weekend. If the wind's too strong for powered and in a suitable direction for a site I know, I'll try to make it.

Should have some pictures of Brawdy and St Davids airfields to upload for Steve! I'll try to get Angle pics soon!

[Jon Moore]

An update of my infrequent flying!

18/02/2007

An extended tour of the Pembroke/Angle peninsular to Angle and taking ages to get back to Hodgetson in an ever increasing easterly breeze. Resorted to flying at 'minimum level' for the final 4 miles to make 8 kts over the ground; rather turbulent in the landing field but OK! Total airtime 1.75 hours.

07/03/2007

Again not the best of conditions. Wind speed a little high at 1500' but some nice strong thermals made progress interesting on the up wind leg to Talbenny, followed by a high speed, down wind dash, back to Hodgeston. 1.75 hours and very little fuel.     

Sorry again Steve; forgot the camera on these flights!

[Jon Moore]

03 & 04 Feb 2007

At last, weather and free-time have coincided! Tried out a higher performance glider on Saturday and made a flight on the same glider from Pembroke to St Clears and return on Sunday. Although the wind speed at ground level was almost zero, needing careful coordination for take off and landing, at 2000' there was an 8 knot easterly. I expect you guys enjoyed some fun on the hills.

Sorry Steve; no photos of Angle A/F or coastal area yet, soon I hope.

Jon 

[Jon Moore]

Thought I'd follow Nick's example and start a new topic for my 2007 flying (b)log -hoping to have as many enjoyable hours as in 2006!

Unfortunately I misread the weather forecast for Sunday 28/01/2007 - far too windy at Rhosilli to test fly a replacement glider. Had a pleasant walk along the downs and cliffs instead!

Jon