Steve Watkins' Flying Diary 2006

[Steve Watkins]

Bryncaws - 19th July 06

Bryncaws with Gareth, Ifor and Mike later. Short flight (not recorded of about 20mins) and top anded due to wind picking up. Waited for an hour and wind dropping. Launched and had second flight for 17 mins - wind switching around from S to SW hit sink and bottomed out in tall grass! Ifor bottomed out and Gaz managed to top land. Mike failed to fly. Very hot day found some shelter in woods.

[Steve Watkins]

FAN-G - 27th July 06

Walked up with Gareth Davies to West face. Wind coming on nicely. Both launched finding lift everywhere. Top landed when sinky later to get some practice in. Gareth found lift under a big cloud and thermalled to base. I tried to follow with some success but lost thermal and headed for hill. Gareth heading towards Beacons.

Slope landed and wing pulled me down hill and spooked me a bit as another 10 yards would have pulled me off and I would have been injured big time. Need to practive getting the wing down quick.

Anyway, shaken but not stirred, launched on top again into smoother conditions and enjoyed another 45 mins of flying before top landing and retrieving Gareth.

Total : 1:15 mins

[Steve Watkins]

Talybont- 25th July 06

Walked up with Mike Fazak and Gareth Davies. Up waterfall ridge. Wind coming through at 25mph Southerly but slowly dropping. Ridge soared and top landed. Launched again and glided to car in carpark and landed well.

Very pleasing evening flight.

35 Mins Total

[Steve Watkins]

Heol Senni/Fan-G - 13th July 06



On arrival at Heol Senni with Ifor and Gaz, met Chris Dusgate (nice to see you!) and there was also a training school on the hill. I spotted Nick as well later on.



Wind coming from North and thermals kicking in pushing the sock to NE. A few were up staying in thermals. I knew the conditions were not right for me yet I still launched and hey presto, bottom landed, bit annoyed.



Anyway, headed for Fan-G for some extra height and launched into 15-18mph conditions. Lots of lift. The wind switched later from North to North East and my flying pattern altered more into the bowl and around.



Loads of punchy thermals and reached 1000 ato. Had a few tucks and a front tuck as well but my DHV1 handled them fine.



Watched as Gaz thermalled over about another 1000ft above me heaading towards the Ystadgynlais direction.



Landed next to car (not normal for me!) and was sick



1:20mins great flying.

[Steve Watkins]

Pandy - 3rd July 06

Decided to head to Pandy with Gaz after winds had switched from NE to ENE. Mike Fazak called and already enjoyed a soar on Heol Senni.

Launched into nice consistent wind and got off to some great smooth lift, smoothest I have ever flown in to be honest. Headed out away from ridge where better lift was to be found in the valley.

Followed the valley right up to where it jumps over to the Bluff ridge, and couldnt get enough lift to hop over. Returned up valley back to launch.

Best flight so far since taking the sport up and calculated a total distance of 22km

[Steve Watkins]

Nant-Y-Moel - 30th June 06



Arrived on site to see Gaz in air. Ifor ready to launch. Wind coming through constant at 17-19mph. Thermals kicking in quite punchy. Nick Roberts also arrived and got off hill.



Launched first time and hit sink. Turned into hill and scratched for a while before finding very thermic lift. Crossed over to adjacent hill.



Switched vario on after 30 mins!



Found lots of thermals and for the first time, found the confidence to 360 in them and found amazing lift.



After a long flight, 90mins, decided to come in to land and overshot hill. Turned and all lift seemed to have died and found myself coming in for bottom land,



Long walk up but worth it.

[Steve Watkins]

25th June 2006



Heol Senni - Sky overcast AM. Started breaking up in afternoon so headed for Heol Senni with a NE wind.



Waited a while on top whilst wind coming through 9-11mph. Took the oppurtunity to do some ground handling.



Gaz joined me a little later.



Wind picked up and launched, few beats and slope landed low.

By the time I climbed up again, the wind had picked up enough to soar the ridge and enjoyed a 45 minute soar in smooth lift, expermenting with turning into lift and weight shifting.



Landed close to the car which I was pleased with! (Little things please me!)



Overall worth going out for and thanks to Gaz for is support

[Steve Watkins]

17th June 2006



Talybont



Arrived on top around 1pm with Gaz (20mins ahead!)  Few people scratching in thermals on the way up. Decided to go to back ridge. Quite thermic and coming through strong. After few hours went back to front ridge and launched with Gaz into thermic conditions, lots of lift but quite bumpy. Enjoyed a flight in thermic conditions and bottom landed over other side of brook.



Overall a good day but ankle is hurting a bit so Im going to take it easy for a bit.

[Steve Watkins]

16th June 2006



Fan-G



Arrived at bowl about 5:00pm. Winds coming on 17mph consistent. Gaz launched to test air and got up straight away. I launched ok and sunk straight out, down to bottom! Never mind. Back to top and launched. Few attempts as wind had picked up. Lots of ridge soaring, lift, thermalling, turns and generally enjoying the very smooth conditions with the odd thermal coming through. Top landed at 8:10pm giving a 90 minute flight. Nice start to my flying since fracturing my foot.

[Steve Watkins]

10th April 2006



Heol Senni.



Happy with launch. Gareth and Ifor already in air reaching some height, near to cloudbase. Had some good lift but a little bumpy with the thermals kicking through. Hit some sink and decided to scratch hill for lift. Still sinking wind caught wing from behind, not sure why, and pushed me downwards very fast, brakes adding the problem. Didn't have time to turn out to safety and crashed into bank and dropped about 15 feet and landed on track.



Fractured left foot, now in plaster cast for at least 3 weeks.



Thankyou to the person who was hill walking and helped me back to the car and carried my gear back to the car.

[Steve Watkins]

Talybont 5/2/06



Wind - SW - 10-15mph at launch



Headed up with Gaz. Only ones on hill. Succesful first launch. Soared the ridge then cut around onto back ridge. Lots of lift on both ridges. Headed back to main ridge and played about there for about 45 mins before top landing. Baloclava was slipping down my head and had to land to take it off.



Launched after a few attempts and followed Gaz to base.



Conditions were mainly smooth and thermals kicking in.



STATS



Total Time - 1:02

Flight Total Length (Ridge Soar) - 16.9 miles. (27.19 km)

Average Speed - 6.83 mph

Max Speed - 33.3 mph

[Steve Watkins]

Talybont 22 Jan 06



First flight of the year. Walked up short way to fly the South East face but wind was coming from South West. Our 7 linked weather sites were forecasting South East.



Gaz and Ivor launched and flew over to walk up South West face. I decided to walk around the bowl.



Site quite busy with about 15-20 gliders.



Wind coming through steady. Launched first time and hopped over to the back face where everyone was soaring nice. Did a few beats of the ridge trying to find lift, playing around in lift. Later kept in and found excellent lift where Gaz & co had been hovering above me.



Landed other side of brook.



Overall a nice start to the season.

[Steve Watkins]

Rhossili 22nd October 2005



On arrival a few already on top. Wind was light, 6-8mph. Waited about an hour and wind started picking up to around 12-15mph. Aborted two launches and totally lost my confidence. Sat down for ages just watching. Simon eventually landed and helped me off. Flew for nearly 2 hours, soaring, making most of lift and experimenting with turns etc. Sunk out on last leg back and landed on beach in a nice controlled manner for a change Very happy with day!!  

[Steve Watkins]

Talybont 18th October



Walked up the waterfall ridge as I call it with Gareth after work. Wind too strong, actually increasing quite a bit as we reached the top. Wind increasing to 30-40mph along with a sudden decrease in temperature and a cold front.

[Steve Watkins]

Heol Senni 5th October



Two top to bottoms, quit dissapointed with my flying today. Winds a little light for my liking though as Im at the top end of the wing range. Gareth, Nick, Simon and Ivor had some nice soaring.