Went to Dungiven yesterday having been delayed by a necessary visit to my sister in Magherafelt. Arriving at the hill I found the usual suspects there with many of them having flown but the wind had now dropped away to a trickle. As we got well into our parawaiting, we watched the windsock doing a dance round the pole as the wind switched all over the place.
Some people gave up and went home and a few headed for White Mountain to check conditions there. After a while the wind came on to the hill at Dungiven at around 14mph. I took off after being unceremoniously dumped on my back by a sudden lull as I left the ground. I got back on my feet by the simple expedient of obeying my own "hands up" advice. On takeoff I was immediately in lift and as there was a slight NW bias to the wind direction I headed to the headland to the south over the road. Lift was moderate and steady, taking me to over 750ft above takeoff and out over the farmhouse at the bottom.
The wind then noticeably shifted to the NW which explained why nobody else was preparing to fly, so it was time to land. It took a while to fly now crosswind back to the hill and into wind towards the top landing area. Approaching the cars I became a bit wary of any turbulence that might be heading my way from Benbradagh headland as I was now directly downwind of it and my approach was taking me over and close to a couple of fences. I therefore flew back beyond the top gate and landed about 100yds from it directly facing Benbradagh summit, being surprised to find the approach there smooth, enabling a tiptoe landing.
Getting back to the car and the others it seemed clear that the wind had settled in the NW direction. I then headed over to White Mountain where I could see that Donal and Michael were by now flying their hang gliders and Ian C, who was depending on me for a lift home, was there with them. I assumed that the wind was too strong for paragliding until I saw Ian take off on his paraglider with no problem penetrating away from the hill. It did not take me long to join them.
Lift was plentiful all round the NW bowl with a couple of places where small gentle thermals were popping up at intervals. That showed up the advantage of a paraglider in such conditions as I was able to slow down and work the small patches of lift that the hang gliders, being faster, flew through. Unusual to be sharing the air with hang gliders and getting above them most of the time.
Since Ian and I had a meeting as members of the Sperrins Outdoor Recreation Forum in the community centre at the bottom of the hill we packed up around 6pm. I flew round to the W side of the hill and landed by the car. Ian landed lower down and the two hang gliders landed in the bottom landing area on the other side of the main road by the gate. All agreed that it was one of the best flying experiences in a long time.
