Nick's Airtime 2010

[Nick Roberts]

25/07 - Graig Fawr
 
It looked promising just before midday but driving over, the cloud spread out and put everything in the shade    but the wind seemed to be ok on the common behind    although at takeoff, it seemed a tad light but I gave it a go and amply demonstrated that the area was devoid of lift  .  What to do?  Pack up and go to Rhossili or sit it out to see if things improve?  A phonecall to Stevie G ruled out the former(just blown out!) and then as if by magic, the sun came out and the breeze kicked in  .  The wind did become a tad strong but up aloft, conditions were quite smooth and we could take in the splendid views. Viv, Stu kelly, myself and two visiting pilots enjoyed a couple of hours  flying with height gains up to 1000' ato.  Later on, the wind did get a bit too strong and we all top landed at around 18:30
 

[Nick Roberts]

Rhossili 03/07 - Ambled down in the afternoon fully expecting it to be blown out but upon arrival there was not to much wind at all and pilots were flying albeit with not a great deal of lift.  After making a couple of texts to say it was flyable, I got ready to launch and the wind mysteriously died away almost completely for a while .  Then, at around 1700, the breeze came on nicely and the sun came out and we all had a good flyabout   
 
Grey skies heralding tomorrow's weather system could be seen in the distance but it never encroached and there were still pilots flying when I left at 20:00.
 
There were a good few visiting pilots as well as members Viv, Guy and Roger the hanglider.

[Nick Roberts]

30/06 Nant y Moel  - Drove up with Viv late morning but we were in no hurry as we could see that the cloud was only just above the top of the hill at Cwmafan as we went past but upon arrival , we were pleasantly suprised to see people flying.  The sky was overcast but the breeze was good.  There were plenty on the hill including Paraventure and the J.S. and Rob and Tina arrived at the same time and we ate lunch before taking to the skies. 
 
A quick wizz around the valley found very unstable conditions and thermals punchy and uncoordinated and a blue hole over the back prompted me to wait a while before attempting XC.  I landed for a chat and found that no one else had seen Tina's unscheduled fullstall
 
Relaunching shortly afterwards, the sky was brighter and the thermals more agreeable    I soon found myself in a thermal at 3000' amsl and drifting over the back with Norris.  It was good to fly as a pair and we could fan out a little to search for the second climb.  I reached the far side of the valley behind without losing height and whilst mincing around in zeros, Norris  lower down headed for the quarried slope on the right and found a boomer.  I glided over to join him and we were on our way to Aberdare.  There, we were searching over the golf course in buoyant  air and Norris again found the climb a little further back upwind.  We circled up and were on our way to Merthyr
 
Over the town, Norris radioed to say he was going to glide to home at Pontlottyn which he managed comfortably.  There was a well defined line of cumulus cloud running across the heads of the valleys and I headed for the edge of it where there seemed to be plenty of weak lift and I thought I was in for an easy cruise towards the Blorenge in the distance but a few km further on, I had dropped down a bit and the cloud had  spread out to the south near Ebbw Vale leaving me stuck in the shade and with no seagulls around to help me out, I glided to the deck at Brynmawr.  The sky further inland was already greying over but after I had packed up, the sun broke through  and seagulls appeared circling overhead     
 
A 35km flight and always great when it is unexpected but could've made Abergavenny and 50km if I had tracked a bit further to the south where it was still sunny......
 
 

[Nick Roberts]

Hmmm... er....oh that gorse bush....well that bush off to the left seemed to have escaped the recent trimming so I just thought I'd level it off  a bit ...honest 

[AndyH]

You didn't mention your encounter with the gorse bush on launch Nick

[Nick Roberts]

29/06 Rhossili  - The morning was pretty claggy after the previous night's rain and I ambled down in the afternoon expecting conditions to improve towards evening for perhaps a glorious sunset flight along the cliffs as there was a hint of northwesterly in the forecast.
 
Arriving at the same time as Andy  there were a few in the air soaring in front of the orographic cloud including Ivor, Paul H, Ian Dobby, Nasher, Wattsy, visitor Mark and Roger on his hanglider.  The flying was ok but we all thought it was going to get better......
 
However, the wind remained south of west and became gradually lighter until it became quite difficult to remain airborne.  We were joined by Viv, Guy, Rob and Tina and then Chris D with the club tandem and we all sat on the pimple as the sun receded to the horizon and the mist came down onto the hill.  Just before the mist came down, there seemed to be a good enough breeze coming westerly onto the hill so I launched expecting a last bit of soaring but there was not a scrap of lift to be found anywhere and I went down to the beach 
 
No two days are the same..........
 
 

[Nick Roberts]

27/06 Rhossili   The wind was off to the south in the morning but the Inshore Waters forecast was for westerly force 4 by the end of the afternoon which proved to be spot on!
The carpark was heaving with visitors when we arrived at 13:00 and the pimple was adorned with hangliders ready and waiting.  The wind was southwest at first and not very lifty in front of the pimple and this proved a little tricky for some of the hangliders but much easier from the top takeoff by paraglider.  Slowly but surely conditions got better and the sky was soon filled with gliders.  I counted maybe fifteen or more  paragliders plus a couple of speedwings and a half dozen hangliders plus two or three of the hugely impressive Atos wings.
 
The Malvern Club were out in force and it was great to see so many hangliders.  Paraventure were there too plus numerous visiting pilots and locals  Paul Hyde, Viv, Wattsy, Jon Munro, Gerry.  Good to see Chris D out on the hill with the club tandem too.  The flying went on into the evening and the conditions just got better and better with a nice smooth westerly breeze. Great to see the club windsock up on the hotel roof(thanks Stevie G!).
 
Another fabulous Rhossili day      

[Nick Roberts]

26/06 - Fan G   Given the light wind forecast, Fan G seemed like a good option.  Arrived late morning to see good cumuli further inland but completely blue all around Fan G.  Up on the hilltop, the wind was quite strong and gusty from the south which led me to believe that the sea air had already moved in.
 
 Myself, Jon Munro and Viv sat around on the southwest takeoff for a good while to see if things would improve.  I tried a short flight at about 15:00 which was snotty and unpleasant.  We were then joined by Dave from London and Al from Llandovery. At around 16:00, clouds started to form upwind and overhead so we gave it another go.  We all flew for a while and the conditions felt better but cloudbase proved a long way out of reach.
 
Into the evening, the lift on the westerly side was good enough for everyone to glide down to the layby except for me who had volunteered to drive the car down  

[Nick Roberts]

25/06 - Fan G   The sky looked great this morning and with light winds from the westerly sector, Fan G seemed a fairly good bet.  On the way with Viv  up however,  the cumulus looked as thought they were fading a little so I thought conditions might be quite weak and so it proved.  We met Jon munro at the parking area and walked over to the big bowl where we could see Steve J, Steve Adams and Andy scratching around and slope landing....hmmm     We did not rush to get ready but settled down to watch the flock of Swifts flitting between different sides of the hill.  The cloud seemed to be spreading out above us and there was no risk of sunburn.  A while later, there seemed to be quite a consistent northerly breeze coming up the bowl so we made ready to launch.  Steve J, who was already in his harness, was first to launch and managed to climb to a goodly height before we were ready to takeoff.  By the time we were ready, the breeze started coming from the southwest    so we had to shuffle over to the west side to launch : not great but still a great deal better than having to pack up and drive to another site !
 
So while Steve wafted around a few km away, we were left soaring the southwest side in the shade which was ok and good practice for launching, landing, groundhandling etc but we were never gonna get to cloudbase 

[Nick Roberts]

24/06 - Rhossili     A day of two halves really!  I left home in the drizzle confident that it would be flyable at Rhossili and that it would brighten up a little later on for the photo session that I had arranged with Kieran from Cardiff.
 
Out on Gower, it was dry but overcast and upon arrival at Rhossili, there was a good dollop of orographic cloud above the hill but there was already one hanglider flying and a few paras on the pimple.  The hanglider pilot turned out our regular summer visitor Roger from Sweden who has been here every year since I can remember and it was great to have a chat.
 
The orographic melted away and I made a few solo flights along with Nasher and a few other visiting pilots under overcast skies but the westerly breeze was consistent and there was plenty of good lift to be had.  Later in the afternoon, I got the tandem ready but the wind picked up a little too much to launch and  aside from Viv who was still in the air, the others started to pack up and leave.  I just had to hope that more people would turn up later to enhance the photo session and that the sun would come out, wind to drop a little........
 
At around 17:30, the photo crew turned up and the sun started to break through but the wind was still a bit too strong so after a chat about what we were going to do , all we could do was sit and wait.... 
 
A couple of hangliders turned up and another tandem PG from Wiltshire  and after watching Viv relaunch, we knew it was good to go with the tandems.  Then Gron and Stuart arrived along with Guy and Ian Dobby who could help out with the anchor work.  I flew with Charlotte from London who came along with Kieran to model for the photo session. The conditions were now just perfect with bright evening sunshine and a nice breeze.     We flew around for ages, making dozens of low passes in front of the pimple for the cameras aswell as having a good float around with the others.  As the sun went down,  we waited for the photographers to go down to the beach where they snapped us coming in for a beach landing.   They were very pleased with the results and there were lots of happy pilots packing up as it got dark. 
 
We then enjoyed the last remants of the sunset over a pint  out on the verandah of the Worms Head Pub........no better place to be on a blissful  summers eve 

[Nick Roberts]

23/06 Nant y Moel - I thought it was going to be blown out but couldn't resist the lure of a possible XC flight.  I arrived at 11:30 to find the wind strong at times but not too bad really and Gerry and Jared were flying and with a few more arriving icluding Cookie and Norris, it was game on. 
 
I launched at  around 13:00 and headed out with Norris towards some small Cumuli that were forming upwind.  There were lots of small thermals and the cloudbase was about 3000' although we couldn't quite get that high, the flying felt great and I felt that the day was going to be rather good.  Looking over the back however, there were no clouds and there was quite a thick inversion to be seen so I thought it best to wait a while before going XC. 
 
It wasn't long before the clouds faded away completely and with none forming over the back and the wind a tad strong at times, I declined to go XC and after a while decided to land for a break.  Gliding back to the takeoff area, I ran into a lot of sink and was scratching back up the slope from about halfway down when I ran into what I thought was some welcome lift....my  glider momentarily rose and as I started to turn out into wind, the glider deflated and front tucked, dumping me about  ten feet onto the slope below the take off area.
 
I landed ok but felt quite shocked by the experience   but with hindsight maybe it was a sobering reminder of what can happen at a site like this when the wind is fluctuating between 15 and 25mph!
 
For a while, I declined to relaunch as the wind although tempting at times was getting rather strong although gliders in the air seemed to be doing fine in terms of forward speed.  Later in the afternoon, conditions mellowed and quite a few more pilots turned up for an after work boat around including Viv, Michelle and Steve Watkins.  At about 18:00,  I espied Stuart from SEW hooking into a nice thermal near the cliffs and glided over to see if I could get in on the act.  I managed to climb right up to the inversion at  3100' which restored my faith somewhat.    
 
The flying went on till around 20:00 when low cloud started to move in ahead of a weather front, I think!
 

[Nick Roberts]

Merthyr - Went back up again today hoping to find my glasses which were "missing presumed to be on the hill" and to maybe get some more XC action.
 
Well, I found my glasses straightaway where I had been reading my paper yesterday
The skies were cloudless but there was a light upslope breeze so I felt quite optimistic that the thermals would come good.  After eating some lunch(and reading the paper), I made ready to launch along with Phil from yesterday and two firemen from Newport.
 
Just as I was about to launch, the wind suddenly became rather strong(high twenties) and I had to wait a while for a suitable lull and when it came along, I popped the glider up, moved forward and promptly sank down on to the slope below
There then ensued a wrestling match with  the glider  as it rolled over and refused to right itself, cravating at every opportunity : I think it was trying to tell me something
 
After about ten sweaty minutes, I relaunched from the slope into a thermal, climbed up and headed south to where  bits of cumulus were starting to form.  I managed to climb to a fairly decent height(2800'amsl) but the lift was lumpy and broken and together with the wind, made for a rather unsettling flight.
 
 The bits of cumulus faded to blue and after about an hour, the conditions had not improved so I decided to throw in the towel and land on the flat area to the north of the ridge.  I felt quite relieved to be back on the ground ; a sentiment shared by the other pilots(including one hanglider)
 
Two days are rarely the same in this game!

[Nick Roberts]

21/06 - Merthyr  Arrived late a.m.  with Viv to find the wind stubbornly off to the south despite the light west or northwest forecast.  Andy and Steve arrived at around the same time and together with Phil and Kev and couple of Poles we could only sit and wait.....
 
At around 15:00, I took a stroll along the top of the hill to the southwest end and felt that the wind would come onto the hill as the sun came around to the west  as I had experienced here in the past. On return to where the cars were parked, Andy and Steve had thrown in the towel and left!  Well, in these situations, a sacrifice is often required..........30mins later, I was getting my glider out and making ready to launch. 
 
At around 15:45, the thermic cycles were coming up the slope well enough to launch into and I planned to soar along to the southwest slope and try and climb skywards.  The air did not feel good at first but  I found lift before the end of the ridge and proceeded to climb out in one of some  rather rowdy thermals and soon found myself at 5300' amsl just below cloudbase.  With the airlane just above, it was time to beetle off towards Abergavenny.  Some good clouds marked the way but a big gap saw me getting quite low over the escarpment north of Brynmawr  but I felt that I was in good air and with some cumulus above, that there should be a good climb there somewhere and then I saw a small gaggle of seagulls circling up  a little to the west and  glided over to connect with the climb of the day back up  to cloudbase at 6000' amsl.  I then went on a comfortable glide past the west side of Abergavenny   towards the Skirrid where I found another weak climb back to base.  Thereafter, the clouds started to die away and I meandered along under the last wisps of cumulus above the beautiful rolling english countryside.  Some last leeside bubbles from Garway Hill  helped me to make it to a field just past the village of Kilpeck and a short walk to the main Abergavenny to Hereford road where I hitched a lift back to Abergavenny and Viv came out  and picked me up after she had landed(big thanks).
 
50km in 2hrs 12mins - A super summer solstice flying day