Santa Claus!

Richard P and I did our Santa act yesterday - delivering 'thank you' goodies to flying site owners at Boviel and Dungiven W. No chance of a flight - low cloud, with wind and rain! Same story at Magilligan without the low cloud.

Considered sandyachting on the beach at Benone. Wind was strong but ok - but the sand was soaked and it was starting so rain so we adjourned to the Coffee Shop in Castlerock for a bite to eat and then went home!

Neverending!

When is this awful weather going to end?

It's not just the weather that frustrates us. As a diversion, Ian Cross and I went off to defend UHPC interests at a meeting at the House of Sport, Belfast this evening. Of course, knowing our luck, when we got there we were told that the meeting had been cancelled - without the club being notified!!

Aaaarrgghhh...

Yet another windy day!!!

Grounded again!

Gales forecast for Saturday so loaded up the X-sail and headed to the 7 mile long beach at Benone, Magilligan. Met up with the Southern Irish sandyachting bunch with their mix of large sandyachts, Blokarts, Pottys and a few kite buggies. Strong offshore wind was turning back the tops of the incoming waves in spectacular plumes of spray. My old flying buddy Martin arrived with his X-sail but before I could get mine rigged it started to rain.


And so it continued, with intermittent light rain and strong wind as we huddled in the car and watched the braver souls ploughing on through the wind and rain. Another old flying buddy who lives nearby - Davy - turned up, but there being no sign of the rain easing, everybody packed up and we headed home. 


More strong winds forecast for the next week or so - grrr...

Rare Flying Day Sat 12 November 2011

Out at Big Collin mountain with thoughts of some tandem flying if conditions ok. No such luck. Wind fluctuating as if often does on this site. One of my students was on his way to the hill so until he arrived I thought I would attempt some aviation. So I took my solo wing and climbed halfway up where I reckoned there was enough wind for a soaring flight. Inflated the wing, turned to start my takeoff run; then a sudden gust tucked the front of the wing; wing dropped back in the lull; then suddenly reflated, jerking me off my feet and taking me for a slide along the soggy hillside for 20 yds or so before I killed the beast!

Returning to takeoff and having checked again that all was in order, including the security of the reserve parachute deployment handle - vital check if you have fallen over - I got airborne without incident this time. Lift was intermittent and patchy. I found myself halfway to the bottom of the hill skimming the grass but by turning in any little bit of lift that came through I eventually managed to get to 150ft above takeoff - and above other paragliders that were trying to follow!! 


My student having arrived, I landed back where I had taken off from and spent the next couple of hours with him revising ground handling, daily inspection, pre-flight checks etc and getting him three good flights to the bottom of the hill. Contrary to the Met Office low level forecast (15kts at 1,00ft!), the wind had dropped to around 5mph by this time and since my paraglider was still up on the hill I went up to fly it down to the bottom landing.


Much to my surprise I was able to get 5 minutes working what little lift there was drifting up the slope before landing beside the car. A good and welcome day after the bad weather.

 

Airborne again!

Got some airtime again at Big Collin mountain on Thursday. First time out since my hospitalisation and surgery on 26 September. Got four soaring flights and one of my paragliding students got some more tasks done before the weather deteriorated - increasing gusty wind stopped play.

I hasten to add that the surgery was totallly unrelated to paragliding activities!

Yesterday

Went out to Big Collin and had another rollercoaster flight - a common feature of this site, with small thermals cycling through. Bottom landed with Martin and we followed Tony round to Shane's Hill after emailing students to save them a wasted journey. Tony and Ian C flew Shane's as did Donal and Martin. Looked similarly turbulent to Big Collin - gusting sharply 9 - 18 mph. Even got to the stage of laying out my wing and getting ready for take off. But when I saw Martin getting chucked around on his miniwing I decided it would be no fun; packed up and carried down. Martin landed in the field in front of Duffin's farm and packed up too. After a chat with the others when Ian landed to thaw out his fingers,  courtesy of Tony's hand warmer heat packs, Martin and I left them to it. Tony, Ian and Donal got airborne again and were still airborne with varying heights when we left.

Grounded

No flying for the last few days - very high winds and occasional rain. We are getting the tail end of hurricane Katia. Winds of over 50mph.

Planemaker!

Got a note from one of my brothers in Canada - work progressing now on his building project. It's a Texas Parasol single seater ultralight aircraft, 3-axis control tail dragger. Just wings and fuselage to cover and instruments and propeller to fit and she should be ready for liftoff. Project started 10 years ago!!

Sand Blast!

Had a blast on the beach at Benone on Northern Ireland's north coast yesterday on the X-Sail. Miles of hard sand and a stiff breeze. Brilliant!

Surprise!

Weather not looking promising but took student to Dungiven for site assessment and theory revision. Surprise! - wind was only slightly off so student got a 600ft top to bottom flight with perfect takeoff, excellent flight and standup landing. Then it rained!!!

Progress!

Had two good days' getting people airborne on paragliders. Initial frustration that the wings wouldn't respond to brute force was soon overcome and all had successful low flights by the end of each day.
Joined on Saturday by local club fliers whose expertise was an incentive to the students. Hoping for more flying tomorrow.

Minimal airtime - but at least got flying!

Joined Danny at Big Collin yesterday. Wind 8-9-10mph was off to the ESE. Danny did a couple of low beats and slope landed. I got five minutes working small thermals drifting up the hill, too small to get a decent turn in. Bottom landed near the cars.


We then went to Shane's Hill. More into wind but too light to soar. Trudged along to the south end of Agnew's Hill and hung around with Richard, Mervyn, Colin D, Walter and Geoff but wind didn't co-operate! I took off and flew back to Shane's where I top landed, packed up and walked back down to the car - as did most of the others apart from a couple who had enough height to fly back to the cars. 

I left and returned to Big Collin with a view to getting one of my nearby students out. Wind there was perfect for a student - steady 8-9mph bang on the ESE slope. Unable to contact student, so went home - turns out he had left his 'phone in the office!!!!

Frustration again!

Went out Saturday with a student. Wind speed perfect; wind direction ok - but it rained!! Sunday too windy and gusty again, with a few light showers. We MUST get some good weather soon!

Windy again - aaargghhh!!

When are we going to get a day that doesn't have a strong gusty wind?

Just heard from an old flying buddy who has moved to Wales and is thinking of taking up the sport after an absence of over 10 years. Hope he has better luck with the weather!

Not again!!!

Here we go again - another windy and gusty day. Hopefully tomorrow will be better before the rain is due to arrive on Wednesday.

Airborne again!

Can't believe it - two days' paragliding on the trot! Friday at Dungiven was epic - vario off the scale at times in lovely smooth lift out almost to the town. Chickened out at 2070ft above takeoff as the cloud overhead was getting blacker by the second. Saturday gave us a magic cliff run to the Mussenden Temple at Castlerock on the north coast in a consistent 500ft above take off. Followed the site rule of 'phoning Air Traffic Control at Eglinton to advise of our activities. As usual they appreciated the call. Two days in a row! Happiness! Can tolerate the rain today.

Losing the plot

Strong and gusty winds again today. Even the birds are walking! When will this end? Looks like the depressions are lined up to keep hitting us for a while.

Grounded again!

Yet another windy Saturday. Thinking of taking the X-sail to the beach but no fun if it's raining.

Too windy to fly - went to the races.

Good day's motorcycle racing at Tandragee. Only called once when a rider came off at around 140mph - his bike was wrecked. He remarked at the time that it was a good job he hadn't fitted the new exhaust!! He crawled out of the hedge without a scratch! Turned out later that he had a broken toe.

Tandragee in the rain!

Windy with rain forecast so I headed to Tandragee as part of the communications network for the emergency services (doctors, paramedics and first aiders) on duty there for the motorcycle race practices. Started off as a lovely sunny afternoon but with a strong wind. Met up with the usual suspects and blagged a lift to my post with my ambulance crew. Practice runs were rather uneventful. Then it rained - and rained! They persevered with some practice laps in the rain until every competitor had done four laps before drawing things to a close. Got home just before 10pm. 


Do it all again tomorrow for the actual races - weather to be useless for flying anyway: again!

What's this wet stuff falling from the sky?

Rain today for the first time in ages - and the wind still with us! Forecast for the next few days looking no good for paragliding. Might go to the motor bike racing at Tandragee - practice tomorrow and racing on Saturday.

Another windy day.

Grounded again today - windy with rain forecast. Reduced to chatting via Internet to an old flying buddy from down South and a long overdue sorting out of paperwork. Thought I had finished with all that when I retired from the day job but BHPA insists on record-keeping - not to mention HMRC!

Parawaiting

No flying or training at all for the last few days - far too windy. Did radio communications at Cookstown 100 motorcycle races on Saturday. Excellent day's racing with few incidents - none serious - on a dry day for a change!