Oggy starts to fly

[pogden]

Sunday 15th February 2009, Rhossili
Met the Scumdogs at Fochriw which was blow out so took Norris and Pete over to Rhossili with the turbo on full boost.
Another new site for the novice and the first time being able to fly by the sea. Wind was on and manageable but with some strange cloud materializing above the ridge. After a shaky start and staying close to the ridge, it was soon possible to gain quite a bit of height 590'ATO. Stayed up for nearly 3 hours, did loads of big ears and gentle 360's but then it all went wrong at landing. The wind had picked up and approach was made too far back so it was looking like the barbed wire fence or a nearby pond was on the menu for when the rotor finally collapsed the wing. However with more luck than judgement a landing was safetly made and another important lesson learned.
Reassuring to see that the mighty Reech and others suffered from the same strong wind issues and ended up the other side of the fence, but perhaps not as far back as the novice went on that particulary nice day.
Next time I will land on the beach.

[pogden]

Wednesday 11th February 2009, Abertysswg
Another great day with Pete, Alan, Norris and Mark plus my fully qualified instructor.
The road up to TO was blocked due to snow and the first hour was spent digging out a stranded delivery van full of kegs of beer. Pity none ended up in the green van!
Probably NW and strong enough to launch from the road - actually right in the middle of the road. Nice stable air offering good lift at times, pushing out over the woods with good views over to fogged-in Fochriw. Opportunities for big-ears, with and without the speed-bar. No real turbulence over the quarry or from the trees which the instructor pointed out as a potential hazard. Norris had the head-cam fitted so evidence of the beautiful Welsh countryside should be available. Looking forward to it.

[pogden]

Saturday 7th February 2009, Abertysswg
Arrived at Keepers Pond to find Norris, Pete, Alan and Mark knee deep in snow attempting a joint effort to launch Norris into a strongish NNW.
Conditions were obviously not ideal as the team were soon back to the green van for hot tea and discussions about Abertysswg which was a little lower but with potential access problems. Yes the snow plough had cleared the road but dumped most of it onto the parking areas apart from near the top where a lay-by for 5 cars was waiting.
Quite strong and in deep snow, even Norris had to make quite a few attempts at launching. Pete the bricky did a great job in assisting the novice and after a good shouting by Mark about "hands up" the Og was up and away. After well over an hour soaring about the white Welsh landscape it was time to land and as usual the glider was flying backwards at touchdown with the novice tripping over and getting dragged towards a stone wall with the snow offering little breaking resistance. Good job I had a qualified instructor with me at this Pilot rated site.

[pogden]

Wednesday 28th January 2009, Blaenavon
Low cloud for most of the trip from Worcester, but approaching Abergavenny that special Welsh climate materialised and the Blorenge and Sugarloaf were bathed in sunshine. A windsock at the base of Blaenavon showed that it was NE and relatively strong so a boggy march up the hill was essential. Strangely it was pretty light at the top and not really sufficient to keep the novice aloft so further marching up the slope was required. Terry the local arrived and appeared to reverse the laws of gravity, being able to maintain height with little or no lift. However things improved and the afternoon continued with a mix of extreme scratching and easy soaring. Pete the bricky and others turn up which introduced a little more focus on ridge rules.
Nice day in Wales.
Driving out of Abergavenny the English weather again took hold with dismal conditions all the way back to Worcester. Even the Malverns were covered in mist.

[pogden]

Monday 26th January 2009, Pontlottyn
Looked like being the best day of the week with the met office predicting E to N with some sunshine. Over to Blaenavon for 12:00 with the top covered in cloud but the wind coming from NE.
Pontlottyn was lower and was sure to have loads of other people there. However the place was deserted but everything looked good to me. A quick call to the local expert Norris reassured me that I was good to go and so I did. Interesting to be alone on the hill for the first time but this time I had borrowed a flying suit from an old mate Pete Brown who previously competed with Jocky Sanderson when he used to be in the British team. No draughts and at least I probably looked like a pilot not that it matters. The Flytec 4030 I had borrowed from the same source was also very useful in confirming up and down although the up didn?t go much above 150? ATO
Pete arrives and we enjoy soaring around for another hour until the wind dropped off.
Heading back to Worcester I see some gliders over Blaenavon so take a quick detour to see 4 or 5 wings enjoying the end of another great day.

[pogden]

Friday 9th January 2009, Bryncaws
Again met Pete at Blaenavon who was in contact with SteveG who was giving good reports about Bryncaws. Never been there before so yet another new site opportunity and what a great site it was being able to drive up to TO. Quite a few people there but the wind was pretty light and slightly off but hey it was a beautiful day and ground handling is always useful. Decided to walk to the top and do a few small hops down to where most people were waiting. It seemed to be working better up there and others did the same but then the wind came up and the sky was filled with gliders. Ridge rules appeared not to apply that afternoon and passing was done in any available gap (or that?s what it seemed to me). Now why did I not attach that red streamer which may have warned others of impending doom? By the time the wind had dropped everyone was still intact, packing up and apologizing for their misdemeanors.
Brilliant day on a nice site amongst friendly helpful people!

[pogden]

Saturday 3rd January 2009, Pandy
Met Pete the bricky at Blaenavon but it just wasn't working so followed the green van over to Pandy to be shown excellent off-road parking facilities c/o SEW club. Lovely site and was quite looking forward to it but not much was happening at lower TO. Up at the trig point however it was a little more lively and the bricky was already scratching along the ridge. Perhaps a little too light and it was hard work at staying up but good practice for slope landings. After balling the wing up for the 4th time something started jumping inside the wing but it was impossible to investigate half way up the hill so the wing and foreign object were carried to the top. When laying out the wing Mr. Rabbit appears from inside one of the cells and was looking rather startled. I assumed this was a common occurrence and asked some other pilots to assist in extracting the beast. Highly unusual I was told whilst the bricky takes some pictures of it for future publication.
Eventually the wind drops off and everyone heads for the distant bottom landing.  Wow that looked a long way away and probably would be the longest glide yet, but after a forward launch it was just a case of sitting back and enjoying the fantastic view with the glider somehow reaching the field by itself albeit with a rather hard landing.
Brilliant day!

[gareth.pawan]

Sounds as if you are doing really well. It is a bit nerve wracking when you start flying just after gaining your C.P. It really helps when some of the more experienced pilots keep an eye on you and profer useful advice and guidance. All the best on your new flying career.
gareth

[Norris]

Nice one Pete, all you need to do now is what you are doing....fly. You're doing okay.

[pogden]

Tuesday 6th January 2009, Blaenavon
Arrived at 10:30 in freezing conditions with wind slightly off the hill. Looked like it could be a little too strong for me at the top as someone was launching from the slope but decided to put on my makeshift flying suit of walking trousers/woolly jumpers and prepare for another dragging. A guy called Ifor arrived and we discussed driving over to Pandy but he thought it may be too light there and impossible to drive up due to ice so recommended staying put.
At the top it was indeed very cold but didn?t feel too strong although the wing was flapping about when laying things out. Must get one of those meters which measure wind speed.
I still didn?t feel confident about which way to connect the risers to the harness making sure that the A?s are at the top, but luckily Ifor was at hand to sort me out.
OK the wing was going to come up and shoot straight over the top of me or come up half way and drag me for the usual 20m, but at least the ground consisted of frozen long grass instead of the lacerating stones at the top of Merthyr. Nervously I built that wall as Chris White told me and the wing came up in an unusually controlled manner. Turn around to the right and off we went floating along the ridge. There were 1 or 2 others around so I made a mental note of who has right of way, but it is not that easy when you are concentrating so hard about flying and having -5 Celsius blowing up your trouser legs. After 30mins the woollen mitts were proving to be ineffective and I just had to take my hands off the brakes (which I had never done before) and blow some warm air onto the fingers. Right or wrong, it let me practice steering with weight shifting, so I did that for another 30 mins whilst life came back to the hands.
Over to the south I saw some gliders getting quite high so with restored confidence I decided to try to join them. There were factories or houses down below and at times the wing was feeling a bit unstable but I guessed it was due to some thermal activity and I did appear to be going up. Must get one of those beeping devices to help me work out up and down. The ridge was getting a little too far away for my liking so I decided to return to safety but ended up being too low and scratching around some quarried area and remembered Norris telling me about bad rotor from the quarry at Abertysswg. Oh [censored] I should not be doing this but pressed on and eventually got some lift which took me around the corner and back to familiar territory where I stayed for another hour just really enjoying flying in that lovely winter landscape.
Eventually the lift appeared to be reducing as was my body temperature so I headed for the windsock and prepared for another hard return to earth, but not on this great day which ended with a nice comfortable landing.
Coincidentally Ifor and his mates also landed and pointed out that one of the lines from my speed bar had been disconnected all day. Still they also said that I was doing OK which is very encouraging to an old newbie.
Total airtime after CP maybe now 6 hours.
Total waiting, ground handling, dragging maybe 106 hours