Reech's Big New Log

[Richard]

2009-03-22 Thames Valley Big Fat Repack at Reading
A day in a sports hall sliding down a zip wire and chucking my reserve! Absolutely great fun. A must do thing. Once a year repack your 'chute. Was interesting to see that reserves that hadn't been repacked in ages were way more reluctant to deploy than the repacked ones.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTxQDA77pf0 (The video's owner prevents external embedding)
Reech

[Richard]

2009-03-21 White Horse Cheril near Calne W light then N howling in the venturi of a bowl over the horse
A day of three parts with a prelude....... Ron and I decided to go somewhere different today. Not for us any old boring well trodden place. First ring Lyneham to get clearance to fly just wihtin their CTR. Get the thumbs up so off we go. Get there and have a good walk about to try to get a feel for how this site works. Just as we are about to make some kind of decision as to a take off place a local pilot comes up and shows us where he 'normally' takes off. So we have a go from there. Very thermic cyclic and a bit uppy downy. Going from nearly slope landing below takeoff to 200' ato over trees in a few seconds is NOT for the faint of heart! Focusses the mind it does............ Anyway, as the day progressed the wind went north and made our take off completely wrong so we moveed round in the bowl which was more into wind. There must be a ferocous venturi effect cause it was howling. A few attempts were made to takeoff but it wasn't happening. After a bit the wind did ease and wonderful lofty, floaty boaty flying was had. Hoorah! Things were good until the wind picked up a little and my speedbar broke! No problem I thought just push out and land. Now a huge gob of lift had magically appeared. The futher I pushed out the higher I went. Not only that but it got quite rough as well. Lots of active flying was being done and with much wiggling about a smooth landing was acheived! A few things else. Ron and I getting blown back and having to do that landing looking backwards thing......... Tricky slope landings when the wing reinflates and trys to fly you off the hill................ Thoroughly entertaining day! Off the map and under the radar...... You know it makes sense.

Part 1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEsg11YtRyI (The video's owner prevents external embedding)
Part 2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LuJXrNqafC0 (The video's owner prevents external embedding)
Part 3 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWTa9CYi-xc (The video's owner prevents external embedding)

Reech

[Richard]

2009-03-20 Cwmbran Fairwater.
Ever so light SE wind with lovely thermal cycles. So it was the thermal tango. Wait/takeoff/go up/come back down. Managed to miss a good cycle by chatting on the ground! Was most pleasant. First time on this site. Bit of a carry up and down! Looks like a cracking site.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWeYzp16bes (The video's owner prevents external embedding)

Reech

[Richard]

2009-03-19 Pandy
Turned out nice again. Got there early. LOads of claggy oro cloud and a strong wind on take off. Cold as well. NOnentheless it cleared. More people turned up. MOst of the day had a strong invesion which compressed the wind on takeoff and limited the lift. Some managed to takeoff from the bottom takeoff and scracth up. Some went down...... After a few attempts I landed and walked up. The inversion did lift and a mighty good time was had by all. (Except cookie who got a bit cold, apparently......) 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RupbogER3zc (The video's owner prevents external embedding)

[Richard]

2009-03-18 Cley Hill
One for the Oldies....... Super light easterly, so just a couple of ttbs. I will return to this site. Only Easterly in this neck of the woods!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLpOdpSJQXQ (The video's owner prevents external embedding)

[Richard]

2009-03-17 Kettle Sings/Malverns

Got there about 2 ish and it was strong east.......... Too strong. Some 2's and 2-3's flying okay but would have been a brave man to take off...... Waited for a bit and it eased, a bit......... Launch was very Saturn 5..... Straight up, speed bar and push out. Okay though. Gale hung, floated about, made good friends with Mister Speed Bar. Landed when it started to get a bit North and the lift got less. No video, had to concentrate! Okay I did shoot some vid..........
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcjJB98CUFM (The video's owner prevents external embedding)

[gareth.pawan]

Love your videos - especially the one of Rhossili. When are you going to use Phil Collins's "In the air tonight?" Or am I just showing my age...

[Richard]

2009-03-15 Merthyr. Managed ti um and ah my way though the morning until I decided to go to Merthyr. Loads of peeps had a great time in some thermally stuff!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUaJXA4ixOQ (The video's owner prevents external embedding)

Reech

[Richard]

20009-02-28 Sandy Bay on the south Devon coast. SSE 15-21 then SSE 14-17. A bit too strong when I got there  but it eased off enough to fly later on. Had a good boaty, floaty, coastal time. Interesting takeof/landing area in cliff top rotor. Makes for some 'mind concentrating moments'........................
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UAjN-YVJuoY (The video's owner prevents external embedding)

[Richard]

2009-02-21 Westbury. Had to work in the morning so got there a bit late for a float about. Was a bit westerly and had been a tad strong earlier, apparently. Nonetheless a good time was had by all!  :mrgreen:

[AndyH]

Great vid Reech, great music too, it does get a bit boring though just sitting down with nothing to do at 1000', nothing like flying in some spring bullet thermals up at FanG..........now that keeps you awake.I managed almost 2hrs there on Monday......... YAWN.

Keep up the fine standard of work.

See you on a hill soon.

[Richard]

2009-02-15 Sunday Rhossili. Here's some vid what I took.......... Amazing orographic cloud.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkzAz6LOkmg (The video's owner prevents external embedding)

Reech

[Richard]

Got there about one (ish), peeps were flying! Was a bit strong on take off but not too bad. Easy flying, made very, very good friends with my speedbar, shot loads of video, messed with my GPS thingy, floated hither and thither. Spectacular Orographic cloud on the main ridge in the sunshine. Landed, had a chat, took off, floated about some more. Then it got dark and the Sun went away, so landed, packed up had some food in the Pub and went home. Very pleasant day.

[Richard]

More fun and games in the snow. Very pretty, very cold! WNW at 10-16 had me pinned a few times.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7argkYLvyw (The video's owner prevents external embedding)

[Norris]

Interestin videos Reech, brought back some memories for me, I've not flown Mere for almost thirty years. I was flying there one day when I noticed a piece of cloth blowing in the wind but travelling upwind. I lost height to check it out and it turned out to be a big Jack polecat, so I landed and caught it and my wife cuddled it till I had done flying and we took it to the local pub and left it there so they could try and find the owner. Never went back to the pub so don't know what happened to it. Had some nice flights there,and at Westbury and Bossington. My local site was Ubley.