Re:- Andy's 2009 flying adventures.

[AndyH]

29/03/09 Arrived at Merthyr to a busy ridge with SteveJ at 11:30ish, as the wind was constantly switching between NW and SW we decided to sit in the car and have our lunch after a quick chat with Norris, Sherulz and AndyB. By 12:15 we made our way to the ridge as the air began to liven up and by 12:25 I was going straight up in a thermic cycle at 3.4m/s and reached about 400'ATO before the switch off after 15mins when everyone else also landed.
     After a 10mins wait a cycle began to pass through and as I inflated my wing and looked left and right there were another 5 or 6 that were also inflated poised for the same thermal, which didn't disappoint, within a minute or two we were all 1000'ATO and within another couple of minutes 2000'ATO, I tried to follow AndyB but he left me for dead, then I tried to follow SteveJ and he too left me for dead. Once I reached 2250'ATO I couldn't find any more lift to take me up to the others that were not far off another 1000' higher than myself, and obviously already going XC, so I decided to stay and practice my thermaling in the 5.1m/s spring Merthyr thermals until I felt ready to go myself. After 40mins I had reached just under 2500'ATO and felt ready to go, so off I set with Abertwswg as my minimum goal, and I made it, but managed to fly further up and along the ridge than the last time managing 9.1kms.
     When I arrived back at Merthyr after a lift from Abertwswg to the bottom of the track with Lyndhurst(SEW club member), and then up to TO with Jon((Avon)thanks again guys)  I had a good chat with Cookie about paragliding and how it changes your life and then SteveJ rang to tell me that he'd made it to Ross-on-Wye, so as it was blown out on Merthyr I went to pick him up.
     We reached Port Talbot at 18:30 to a blue sky and a perfect SWerly so we parked up and made our way up Mynydd Dinas, by 18:55 we were both enjoying the smooth lift and a setting sun (with the steel works to the left) and landed after 25mins when the elements shut up shop for the day.
1hr 30mins   

[AndyH]

16/03/09 Went to FanG alone for my first fly after another long lay off, almost drove past Ivor and Gaz on the track on my way up but was halted by a few yells of despair.Launched at 13:15 for the first time into a 10-15mph SWerly thermic cycle and went straight up, spring is here at last.Managed a dozen short flights in the thermic cycles when they came through and had to work each thermal bubble whilst in flight to stay aloft, had 4.9m/s displayed on my vario at one point .Unfortunately the wind didn't veer west as forecast which limited the days potential but still made it an ideal day for getting back into the harness.1hr 30mins.

[AndyH]

21/02/09 Made my way to Ferryside with SteveJ as the forecast was for strong westerlies by mid afternoon,had a site briefing from SteveJ as it was my first time at this site, and launched first from the 200' TO at 12:50 into a 14mph westerly above a sun lit estuary and flew in weak thermic conditions managing 300' ATO, shared the sky with buzzards,red kites, peregrine falcons........ oh and a RAF hercules which appeared to be dropping off supplies along the beech, watched the people on the mud flats taking pictures of us so gave them a wave and landed backwards at 14:20 in freshly scattered manure after a very enjoyable 1h 30mins.

[AndyH]

16/02/09 Arrived at Rhossili top TO at 11:45 where Ian D. was already set up and waiting for a suitable breeze, so had a chat whilst rigging up and volunteered to be the wind dummy for the day and was airborne by 12:05 just managing to stay above TO in the very light conditions and top landed when I noticed Ivor making a surprise appearance on TO.Launched again in very light conditions and managed to easily remain above TO and top landed to have a chat with TomG, ChrisW and Jarred.Launched again into slightly stronger dynamic lift and landed on the pimple for a break and had a chat with RobB and Cookie.Launched from the pimple and flew until the orographic cloud made the flying a little bit exciting and landed on the beach just before Andy Brazier because we couldn't see the ridge.1hr 45mins.

[AndyH]

11/02/09 At long last some flyable weather in South West Wales, Seven Sisters to be precise.Was picked up by SteveJ at 11ish and kept him waiting for a while whilst I went through my flying items check-list, as it's so long since I went flying last, Steve only had to remind me to put my wing in........honestly.......well sort of, he thought I'd forgotten it but I hadn't.Whilst heading west along the M4 we noticed an unusually high number of emergency vehicles heading in the opposite direction, and assumed that there had been a RTA on the east bound carriageway.Whilst passing through Crynant we were informed that 2 aircraft had been involved in a mid air collision within a few miles of our homes, bearing in mind that the RAF regularily use this airspace for polishing up on their aerobatic skills which on occasions is extremely entertaining to watch, but in all of the times I have never known there to have been more than 1 aircraft.
     Met up with Ivor at the bottom of the track and arrived at TO at 12:45 to a 15-20mph WNWerly, launhed just after Ivor at 1:00 and flew for just over an hour in some thermic conditions(at last) and managed 600'ATO in some 3.2m/s stuff, bottom landed, as wind had increased, for a pee and to adjust my harness after I recently trimmed my harness seat board to fit my fat backside .
     Returned to TO and launched again at 14:50, and flew in some even better thermic conditions and managed 725'ATO in chopped up 4m/s thermals and bottom landed after just over another hours almost awesome flying.2hrs 15mins

[pogden]

A busy ridge - it was like driving along the M5 at 90mph with snow falling on the windscreen. Objects kept appearing from all directions whilst it was difficult enough maintaining height particularly over the N side and then it got a little bumpy in the middle where there was some lift.
Apologies to anyone I cut-up, and I know there were a few of you.
However, I suspect I was not alone in this offence.
Another Great Day!

[AndyH]

09/01/09 Arrived at a busy Bryncaws at 11:15 and as conditions were light took my time to have a nice chat with all my flying friends, nice to see Pete the bald bricky out on the hill(first time since Turkey),Rob+TinaB,Viv,StevieG,Oggy,not forgetting Ivor and a few others I didn't know.
Launched at 11:40 into a light easterly and tried to make it over to the north end of the ridge, but as conditions were so light I bombed out just below the ridge and walked up to TO, waited for a thermic cycle to draw through, and launched into it, but as they were only small weak thermic drips that I couldn't work I returned to lower TO and sat down to talk about my new helmet.I then repeated this exercise for a second time and again it was too light for me to remain at altitude so returned to lower TO.Whilst discussing how good my new helmet was the wind picked up slightly and veered SE, so launched at 13:10 and headed north to the se facing ridge just past the gulley but bombed out and started making my way upto the top for a launch as conditions were feeling strong enough for some quality airtime, just as I reached TO Pete came flying overhead confirming my suspicions, so launched and flew the short SEerly in light thermic lift with approximately a dozen pilots some of which were low airtimers but this wasn't the reason for a few shouting matches, Stuart(SEW) and myself also came VERY close at one point and a brief shouting session was heard at lower TO, landed next to Stuart immediately to apologize only for him to deliver an apology to me, it was one of those grey areas, I was circling in a thermal and Stuart was ridge soaring and hit a patch of lift directly below and started rising into my path in the same thermal, all is forgotten and I knew Stuart was a good pilot anyway, during my flight I managed 400'ATO in 2.2m/s thermals.Fairplay to the low airtimers, they deserve full marks for flying on such a busy ridge today.
After a long flight I landed and had a chat with Oggy and explained that there may be a chance of some restitution, no such luck so flew down to the van and wrapped up.2hrs15mins.       

[AndyH]

06/01/09 Blaenavon with SteveJ, launched at mid-day into a 15-17mph ENEerly, crept along to the south end of the ridge as I noticed that Steve was finding some thermals above a flock of gulls, so I headed over too and managed 650'ATO during a 1hr30mins freezing flight.
Launched again at 13:35 into a weakening wind and flew for another 15mins and bombed out on the slope, made my way back to TO and flew for another 20mins in a very light ENEerly just managing to remain ATO and eventually gave up due to the temperature and bottom landed.2hrs. 

[AndyH]

03/01/09 After Ivor informed me that it was blown out in the Beacons I opted to put the misses,the boy,the 2 dogs, my wing and myself in the car to head up to Cwmparc for a walk .Met Cliffy in the car park and as it was my first time to fly here I received a very comprehensive site briefing(take off there, top land there and bottom land there)great stuff, I was ready to go, as easy as that.Launched first at 14:00 as Cliffy couldn't decide if conditions were correct, and flew for 30mins in mixed dynamic and thermic lift with some 2.9m/s thermals reaching 250'ATO and bottom landed when wind picked up and a brief spell of gale hanging ensued all caught on vid-cam by Cliffy(he said he'll pass it on as soon as he can).As my misses was there with the car she made her way down to retrieve me, so I packed up and waited for Cliffy as he to had landed after a spell of gale hanging.Whilst waiting by the road, who should come around the hairpin in his car, none other than our very own sites officer Mr Steve Jones, so my misses headed off home and I returned to the top TO with Steve and launched at 15:50 and flew for another 30mins in dynamic lift managing 200'ATO and top landed behind the notorious and lethal rotor at this pilot rated site.1hr.  Happy new year to you all and lots of flying toooooo.