Re: Andy H's flying diary 2008

[AndyH]

16/02/08 After taking over an hour to decide where to go at 9:45 opted to take a look at Bryncaws on my own as SteveJ was working.Arrived at Bryncaws 10:15 the wind speed/direction was12-17mph easterly so set up and took off and managed a 10min flight before having to slope land because wind dropped off, walked back up to take off and wind was up to 15-20mph so took off again and managed a 45min flight and 500' ato before the wind turned slightly to the north forcing me to top land.As the win was weaker than the forecast had stated I thought I'd chance my luck and try Abernant, arrived at 1:00 and took off into a smooth 15-18mph ENE and instantly climbed to 400' ato in a thermal which stopped at this height also and continued to boat around in mixed thermal and dynamic lift for an unexpected 1hr55mins in virtually perfect conditions(probably the smoothest flight i've ever had apart from Rhossili).Decided to fly for a further 5mins to make the flight time 2hrs,on my final turn into land I felt myself go into an unusual twist and then into a spin at approx. 50' above the flatish area of ridge next thing I know the ground is upon me and after a bit of a tumble got up and everything was fine apart from my vario which has now been repaired.Got home and immediately put on Jocky's DVD to fully understand what had happened, and it appears that I had unknowingly turned in a weak thermal which had then caused my wing to enter the spin unfortunately at this low level,great day really enjoyed getting to know thermals in these conditions and I think even SteveJ would have been impressed(lol).TOTAL AIRTIME 20.25 HOURS   

[AndyH]

13/02/08 Abernant with my father for the first time, and felt a little bit nervous as I needed everything to go smoothly today for me to reasure my naturally concerned father that I was able to fly reasonably safely.Things couldn't have gone better, although I couldn't help noticing that he wasn't relaxed enough to sit down on the ridge, as if he was at the ready to run and catch me should I have fallen out of the sky(he even purchased a newspaper that didn't even get read it was probably to wipe his backside with).Wind speed direction 10-13mph easterly took off and had to remain close to hill at all times as lift was broken up into short bursts and managed to climb 100' ato at one point,remained in flight for 0.75hr until wind dropped off and slope landed.Walked back up to take off and had a cuppa and some grub with my old man, and waited for wind to pick back up,at exactly 2:00 the wind returned at similar speed as earlier so decided to have 1 more flight, unfortunately this flight only lasted 5mins as the wind completely dropped off and forced a second slope landing, walked back up to take off to find nil wind and whilst packing up noticed that the wind had turned to a SSW at only 2 or 3mph.Little bit disappointed that conditions weren't good enough for me to climb to good alt. but that's probably not a bad thing under the circumstances, as my father had a triple bypass over 15yrs ago,hopefully this hasn't scared him too much and look forward to many more days on the ridge together,thanks for coming along.TOTAL AIRTIME 17.25 HOURS.       

[AndyH]

12/02/08 Abernant with SteveJ arrived at 12:30 wind speed and direction 12mph easterly took off and ridge soared for about 10mins and noticed SteveJ making good alt. very quickly so copied him and managed to climb to 700' ato in very little time,was this my first thermal or what?,wind increased but still felt comfortable so remained airborne as I was enjoying so much and managed 1.25hrs flying before wind became too strong and chose to top land.Bryncaws also with SteveJ wind speed direction 15-20 s.easterly took off immediately upon arrival and climbed to 500' ato in mixed dynamic and thermal lift and flew for 0.75hr in smoothish conditions and top landed.Really happy with the way everything is going but still haven't had that first big thermal yet.TOTAL AIRTIME 16.5 HOURS

[AndyH]

11/02/08 Bryncaws with SteveJ, had to wait for 1hr for wind to pick up but didn't mind as Steve Millson my old paragliding instructor was there, so filled him in on my progress and had a good chat,nice to see him earning money in February.Wind speed 12-18mph ESE not a cloud in sight managed several soaring flights and also encountered some very small thermals.A strange day with moments of easy soaring combined with some hill hugging spells,made it interesting never the less.We were also joined by Tina and Rob and it was nice to get to know another flying carpenter(slimjim)great couple and saw Tina take off for a top to bot but it turned into an impressive soaring flight,nice 1 Tina you looked like a pro,we were also joined by Andrew and Glyn with whom we had flown on Saturday.It's good air handling practice this hill hugging not as easy as it looks but still managed 2hrs flying.TOTAL AIRTIME 14.5 HOURS.

[AndyH]

09/02/08 with SteveJ went to Bryncaws to be informed by Sheryl,Glyn and Andy that there was no wind so after a phone call it was decided to go to Tal-y-bont.Reached the summit to find 23mph gusts,waited an hour and was then able to take off first time and perform a number of soaring beats in an 18mph s.westerly.Expected strong dynamic lift but was surprised at how much I had to work for it(confused???) and felt as if I was getting in better pilots way,so opted to push out and enjoy the long top to bottom.Not the best flying day I have ever had but it did have some amazing views to live for, including Pen-y-fan.After landing at bottom I lay down in the warm February sun and watched all the others enjoying themselves scratching about for about an hour before the wind dropped off almost completely and then they joined me.Can't wait until the thermals really start happening as this is one site I can't wait to fly again.TOTAL AIRTIME 12.5 HOURS.

[AndyH]

08/02/08 Cwmafan(alone) wind perfectly south at 15-20mph took off immediately and managed to gain 725' above take off(1525' amsl) the highest I have ever flown in the whole world, it seems the higher you climb the better this sport gets.I was high enough to see SteveJ arriving home from work on his bike I think he saw me wave, if he didn't i'm sorry but I wasn't going to get any nearer.Had a great flight and pushed well clear of the ridge on a number of occasions and then returned back into lift had to constantly switch between speed bar and controls during entry and exit of lift, great experience.After Saturday's episode at N.Y.M. I was keeping a careful eye on how much of my speed bar was required each time I was in lift because it's always nice to have a little bit to spare as the wind was forecast to pick up.After 1hr flying I realised that now was the time to land as I was running out of speed bar so pushed out and made ground slowly attempted top landing but wind too strong so dropped down for gentle bottom landing with big ears.An absolutely amazing 1hr flight and actually feel like i'm getting somewhere with what i'm able to achieve even impressed myself today, what a way to start the weekend, hopefully the weather's good for the weekend so that I can get some more flying in.TOTAL AIRTIME 12 HOURS.
       

[AndyH]

06/02/08 Rhossili arrived on pimple at 9:15am wind slightly off to the north wind speed 19-24mph so waited.Was soon joined by StevieG, PaulH and Chris(Thailand) waited a further hour until wind speed was a more respectable 15-20mph and the lads allowed me to take off first,I eventually got away on my third attempt thanks to StevieG's lesson on the use of a speed bar(thanks to you all for helping me out of that gorse bush boys).Managed to ridge soar in moderate lift for 1.25 hrs with an altitude gain of 300' and also pushed out a few times and had a little bit of fun playing, and then ended my session with some close ridge scratching until the wind almost dropped off ,returned for top landing and we all went down for a pint really pleased with today as I have now officially completed over 10 hours of flying which means my streamer can come off.TOTAL AIRTIME A MAGNIFICENT 11 HOURS 

[AndyH]

02/02/08 Nant-yr-moel (alone) been once before with SteveJ but didn't fly on that occasion so left home at 9:15am towards the previous direction that i could vaguely remember with no sat.nav.,continued along road until I convinced myself that I had taken a wrong turning, so turned around and headed back the way I had just come from,after driving for approx. 4-5 miles I was fortunately contacted by Steve sat.nav.Jones who informed me that I had always been on the right road so turned around once again to retrace my journey, only to discover that I was originally less than a mile from the site,(the joys of discovering paragliding sites ehh,who said paragliding was a green mode of transport, I must have increased the size of the hole in the ozone layer two fold this morning)not to worry I know where it is now after all how could I ever forget.Wind spd/direction 13-20mph westerly,took off had 15 minutes alone in extremely bumpy conditions managed  215' above t/o  and was then joined in flight by Mark Harris(Red Dragon Paragliding)and his brother, who live nearby.Continued to fly for a further hour in slightly smoother air until I heared my vario screaming,on visual display I could see over 350' displayed and noticed that Mark had by now landed and his brother had his big ears on attempting to bottom land, unfortunately for me I was in the venturi applying more and more speed bar with little effect, and going backwards(if I remember rightly SteveJ named it gale hanging,he never told me it was this much fun(whaaywhoo lol))with the ground coming ever closer I then realised that this is what SteveJ refers to as being pinned, top landed in a heap and had a nightmare gathering up my wing in what Mark was to soon to inform me were 29mph gusts.Glad I had flight as have learned so much today, this just seems to be the case every time, it goes to show how variable the conditions can be and that there is much more for me to learn yet and that's what keeps me so keen and interested in this amazing sport.Total airtime 9.75hrs.
     

[AndyH]

28/01/08 Mynydd Dinas(alone) wind spd/direction 12-17mph s.westerly no low flying novice acro pilots and no orographic cloud so everything was set in place for a good days flying.First flight ridge soaring 1.5 hrs suffered small pitch and roll oscilations and corrected easily managed to climb 505' above take off and top landed for lunch and to warm up.Second flight: walked back down to take off and flew for a further 50 minutes before being forced to slope land as wind backed off,ready to call it a day I packed my wing up after untangling it by which time the wind had picked up again, so returned to take off and managed a 10 minute top to bottom just in time for my girlfriend to give me a lift back to my van(what a result).Very pleased with today as had good practise reacting to oscilations(in preparation for the bigger ones I will encounter when entering thermals, oh ****!!!).Total airtime 8.5hrs.

[AndyH]

27/01/08 Rhossili ,wind spd/direction 15-20mph westerly with orographic cloud present over top ridge the whole day, 20 paragliders in flight plus 4 hangliders (so the girlfriend tells me) used my vario for the first time and zeroed it at take off,managed to climb to 820' thats about 600' above take off and couldn't match it again it must have been that the wind dropped slightly never mind.Flew for just over an hour and bottom landed on beech to meet up with girlfriend and was happy to land as i found the sky a bit uncomfortable with a few pilots performing acro's near the ridge, not forgetting that the orographic cloud was making ridge soaring trickier for a low airtime pilot like myself,never the less i still enjoyed the flight and whilst speaking to an x swwsc member i was informed that one of the acro pilots had fallen into difficulty and had had a hard landing at the bottom of  the ridge and was shorly followed by a few other pilots to check on him and from where we were standing there didn't seem to be much of a panic so still unsure of their injuries(if any)My girlfriend has also finally decided that she wants a tandem flight.Total airtime 6hrs     

[AndyH]

12/0/08 mynydd dinas with stevej,wind spd/direction 7-12mph westerly managed 1, 5 minute flight and slope landed .Waited for conditions to improve and wind turned and slowed to a 5- 10mph s/westerly with wind now square on both stevej and myself attempted a second flight hoping for an improvement but after another short flight we were both forced to bomb out and complete another ascent of the 60 degree ridge at mynydd dinas(nightmare but definately worth it).Decided to wait more time for better conditions and where finally rewarded after recovering from the climb with a 12-17mph wind from a southern direction and a magnificent 1hr flight above the M4 overlooking port talbot and the coastline and even managed to take a quick snap of my view and my feet using the speed bar,unfortunately though the wind speed picked up just ahead of the c.nimbs that were approaching which forced us both into bottom landings and cut short a new experience for me(flying above a built up area).Another excellent day for me as i also managed to check and adjust my riser distance (42cms) during flight after discovering that my risers were more like 55cms apart and noticed a distinct performance improvement with immediate effect.Must say thanks to stevej for coming along on days that are not really much of a challenge for him and sharing his knowledge with me top guy cheers mate.I've also ordered and am picking up a digifly vario(£154 reddragon paragliding)sometime this week.