Re:- Andy's 2009 flying adventures.

[AndyH]

Total time flown in 2009=58 happy hours.

[AndyH]

08/10/09 A moderate NEerly wind had been forecast so we all met up at Heol Senni for a fairly good days flying, managing well over 1000'ATO on a number of occasions in some 4m/s stuff. After having flown for a couple of hours I decided to head for the landing field, but on my approach accidentaly flew into a thermal, so chose to use it for a bit of practice, then after a minute or so in the thermal two RAF harriers flew passed me at the same altitude on either side of me, the one on my right was banked at 90'.......too close for comfort, other than that it was a really good days flying with a good turn-out too. 3hrs

[AndyH]

01/10/09 A light westerly, so met up with Ivor at FanG. bottom gate, managed a few flights getting 200'ATO and we both landed when the wind suddenly picked up. 1hr

[AndyH]

24/09/09 SteveJ picked me up and we met up with ChrisD in Seven Sisters and bumped into Ivor when he was walking along the track, so picked him up and squeezed back into Steve's car.
     Conditions on TO were crap for most of the day although ChrisD managed to work a few thermals to 1400'ATO which is when he decided to go off the back, my best altitude to this point was 181'ATO.The entire day consisted of numerous short10-20min flights in the light conditions.
    Ivor landed and that was the sacrifice we needed, because suddenly the wind picked up and the sun stayed out for the longest part of the day so far, and very quickly SteveJ and I were sharing a thermal at 650'ATO when I fell out of the back off it and found myself going down with zero ground speed towards the trees, so put half bar on, and no change, so applied full bar and juuuust managed to clear the tree line, decided to push out into the valley to check for the lift out front, loads of bubbly 2.7m/s stuff which was sort of spring like and quite bumpy, but enjoyable after it being so gentle for most of the day.I eventually landed next to Ivor and watched Steve go off the back, so packed up and then went to retrieve Chris and Steve.
2hrs.

[AndyH]

20/09/09 Went straight up to FanG after coaching the boys in rugby, met up with Steve Bain and Simon at the bottom gate and then met up with Nasher, NickR, SteveJ, Rhun and Owen on TO, and hadn't missed any flying because there was no wind.Set up and launched into a very, very light WNWerly and bombed out after a 10min battle leaving myself a long walk up,by which time ChrisD had arrived, had a few more short flights and a chat with everyone.
     At 17:00ish the sun came out and the valley floor warmed up making the air burst into life, and we all had a really nice evening roam around the Beacons sky, and landed next to the 2nd gate immediately next to my van.......excellent.
     I followed ChrisD and SteveJ down to the bottom gate, we then made our way to the lay-by to watch Simon and Rhun fly down for their first bottom landings at FanG, and then headed off to the pub for a quick drink.
1hr 30mins

[AndyH]

19/09/09 Seven Sisters, SteveJ and I met up with Rhun and on arrival were told that we weren't permitted to access the site using our vehicles, so Steve worked his magic which enabled me to continue up and check on conditions....too light and off to the west....so went back down where it was decided to have a chat with a local farmer to discuss the possibilities of using his farm to gain access to our site...these negotiations went very well, but as conditions were still too light we opted to give Fan G a try, but at the Banwen junction we could see that Fan G was in cloud, so turned around and headed back to Seven Sisters, knowing that we had an up-hill walk ahead of us, but we were wrong, because today was our lucky day and we managed to have a lift up on the trailer of one of the site vehicles, it was a bit bumpy on that trailer, but it beat walking up.
    I launched first and was surprised how easy it was to stay up, as conditions were so light on the hill...and I didn't have a vario, because Rhun had forgotten his, so he borrowed mine......who said our club chairman has an appalling attitude, I thought that was mighty decent of me.We all had a nice fly about, and Rhun managed to fly the whole length of this tricky ridge....well done.... finally we all  landed in the works car park by the gate because it was Saturday and all the guys had gone home.
1hr 30mins

[AndyH]

18/09/09 Abernant with SteveJ, expected it to be lively after reading a message left by Nasher in our shoutbox, but incredibly it was too light to fly for a while. Set up slowly and waited some more, and then a bit more again, until eventually it started to work....just....I managed 75'ATO and 5 flights, and landed next to Steve's car when we had had enough. 30mins.

[AndyH]

12/09/09 Heol Senni, walked up with Neil from Wessex whilst Nasher was already airborne testing out the air.Set up and launched and managed 850' ATO whilst SteveJ and ChrisD walked up, I found the thermals to be very fine and harder to work early as they were a very gentle 2.8m/s, although they did fatten up later on along with the wind easing, meaning thermic flying only, 8 flights in total which gave everyone a chance to sit down for a chat between flights, also on the hill today were NickR, Viv, Rhun,(obviously) and Rich from Cardiff.
   After we had all had enough we landed together and went for a social and beer with friends in the Ancient Brit, where everyone put up with my appalling attitude.3.5hrs.

[AndyH]

09/09/09 Heol Senni, arrived alone as SteveJ has deadly virus, (get well soon) one wing already at good alt., so march up the hill where I met up with Nasher, GlynS and was introduced to Phill a newly qualified CP from Monmouth. Set up immediately and launched into 15-20mph NNErly under the cloudless sky and attempted to join the other pilot, which after a while I managed , but only after having to follow a shallow thermal over the back......too far really for me as the other wing proved his penetration qualities were far superior to mine, and I had to struggle back to the hill on full bar.....but I made it.Managed over a grand on numerous occasions, 1250' was todays best for me in gentle 3.8m/s lift.
   Excellent to see so many out on the hill mid-week SteveJ, Ivor, Jon Monroe, NickR, Viv, SimonJ, ChrisD, Humphrey(with mad Rosser), Jared even Rhun made it straight from school. 3hrs.

[AndyH]

Aug/09 Site de la Fournaise (SW) Les Monedieres, arrived late morning when conditions were still weak, and only the students were flying their TTB's, so I decided to have a go to see if I was able to work the small bubbles of lift that were being pointed out by some small birds.........no joy and bottom landed with a retrieve from the misses.

   Returned to TO (after kayaking around the lake and some crazy golf in 46'C) and launched immediately in my shorts and t-shirt and enjoyed a lively flight......... without my vario......... reaching 400'-500' ATO with a dozen other pilots, plenty of room to fly with excellent airmanship.......sheer bliss, not a SAT in sight.1hr 15min.

[AndyH]

05/08/09 NYM with Rhun and SteveJ, flew in 3.9m/s thermals managing just under a grand on a number of occasions during 2 flights.Launched for my third flight at 15:05 and both SteveJ and myself got ourselves into a really nice 5m/s thermal and found ourselves at 2000'ATO in no time, so looked at the sky behind and was disheartened to see the closest clouds were 25kms away so headed straight for Treorchy on full bar leaving Steve to have the thermal for himself, found a peach of a thermal by the rock scree just when I thought it was all over which got me back to 1500'ATO, so headed NE again and then spotted some birds thermalling above a large industrial warehouse to my North, so went there on full bar, and got myself into the same thermal,which got me back up to 1000' ATO and then headed for a forested ridge with a large clearing on the top, this also worked but was rather rough so with just enough altitude I left it and gingerly applied my bar and headed for the ridge at Cwmbach, as I reached it too low my flight was over and had to land on a clearing in the middle of a housing estate.
 After a short walk a very nice polite young paraglider named Cath pulled up in her car to offer me a lift which I thought rather decent of her, after a telephone call from Steve she even offered to pick him up too.
 After being dropped off by the ice-cream van I managed to leave my water pouch on the wall in the rush to get Steve to work on time, never mind 12.5kms and 1:45 hours flying isn't such a bad day. 

[AndyH]

July, Mynydd Dinas x2.
 Went up with SteveJ for an evening flight this time and played with some guls in a few thermals for 20mins reaching 100'ATO until things shut down, and was forced to land on the playing fields as I had run out of landing options, whereas Steve had managed a perfect slope landing, but flew down himself a short while later as conditions didn't improve.

 As SteveJ was away on holidays went up for a lone evening flight on this occasion, had to wait for thermal cycle to pass through to get airborne, and flew for 15mins in thermals managing 175'ATO.Headed for NW end of ridge and found myself in sink, so pushed out and found myself with zero ground speed above the M4 flying in a very strong SSE (not a ripple on the water out at Aberavon beach), had no chance of making the playing fields to land, so chose to head cross wind for the industrial estate, and landed perfectly in the Barret showhouse front garden infront of 2 very surprised Barret reps.ahhh the fun we have.

30mins total.   
 

[AndyH]

16/06/09 Met up with SteveJ on Nantymoel after dropping the misses off to pick up her car from its MOT, where the wind had just picked up, so parawaited for a bit until we were joined by Nick, Viv and Paul Paraventure with a few students. I launched first to test the air out which started the mad rush for everyone else to get ready and get in the air, landed when things temporarily shut down just as Cookie and Karl arrived, so had a quick chat and gave it another go when the wind strengthened and came squarer on to the hill and enjoyed a typical smooth evening boat around with loads of great pilots managing to get to only 400'ATO in the restitution.Landed and asked Pete the bricky if he fancied swapping his tools with a carpenter, when I say tools, I don't mean the working sort, I mean the flying sort, and Pete let me have a go on his Rush whilst he took Karl's Sigma6 for a flight, and it was Pete and myself that ended the evenings flying , and me with the most to think about after flying the Rush ......thanks Cookie.
2hrs 

[Pete Cooke]

i went to abertwssg with 2meter kite 1pm and that gave me a kicking he he .

[AndyH]

14/06/09 Went to Nantymoel today with SteveJ after meeting up with Rhun, arrived just behind NickR and Viv at 11:15 and had a surprise to see Ivor out with his wing to sort it out and do some GHing, so walked over with Ivor and had a chat whilst he sorted his wing out, he then clipped into his harness turned to face his wing, built his wall, and raised it above his head to do some GHing, as soon as it was above his head he turned, and was off the hill and into the air.....amazing, considering it was only 2 1/2 months ago that he had his bump. After deliberating whether or not to head for Merthyr, this event made our minds up, so we all set up and flew in the strong broken thermals, NickR managed to get away, whilst the rest of us struggled to get more than 400'ATO and were forced to land when the wind picked up, so sat around and had a good social on the hill with pilots from SEW and Avon.
     After a long wait conditions eased in the early evening, so we all went up to have another flight, and after 20mins another pilot and myself found ourselves at 2000'ATO without a cloud near us, so we both went off the back, he headed NE whilst I chose to head E, I eventually landed after a very smooth glide on the bar 8kms away in Trealaw.......the smoothest, unusual but enjoyable downwind glide I have ever had, my landing on the bowling green in Garth Park was perfect and fortunately no one was playing bowls........although I could probably land within inches of the jack .
    Had a pint in the Royal Hotel and was picked up by Ivor who dropped me off at Hirwaun, where I was met by Nick on his way back from his flight to Monmouth, who then took me home.Thanks for the lifts boys, and glad that Rhun's patience paid off enabling him to get a flight in, in far from ideal conditions for a low airtimer....well done.
1hr15mins