Another good day at Big Collin!

Initially the wind was quite strong and just slightly E of SE but with little lift. I had a short top to bottom flight as my first student arrived. Students practiced their reverse launch ground handling initially. Got Taster student Declan McGill ground handling then three good flights getting higher each time and all standup landings. CP student Gerry Johnston also flew for the first time in 6 months having been off with a health glitch. Dermot Lagan showed how ground handling should be done and also had a number of flights top to bottom as did Martin Bates on his single surface Niviuk Skin wing.

It seems that there was some reasonable flying at Agnew's Hill underneath the new Class D airspace, with rarely seen Mark Gibson and Richard Stewart getting some airtime with Colin Dowey and Tom Carson. It was also good to hear that former club member and excellent pilot John McNamee also put in an appearance with a view to getting back into the sport after an absence of five years!

Good day at Big Collin yesterday (Tues).

More ground handling with Willie Armstrong and Paul Cunningham in slightly gusty ESE wind - not the best direction for flying Big Collin but ok for ground handling. Martin Bates joined us for a while. Paul managed one short hop before the wind went Easterly and we stopped.

Promised something but delivered little.

Took EP student Gintaras Jakutis out to Agnew's West around lunchtime when it looked as if the showers might stay away and the wind remained light. Arriving there, we found the wind spot on and around 7-8mph - just nice. After the usual thorough daily inspection, GT (as he is known) got plenty of practice in at reverse inflations and turn for launch as well as repeated pre-flight checks.

There was a lot of towering Cu clouds around and it wasn't long before the wind became gusty and variable in direction although overall wind strength never got above 12mph but momentarily fell to 2 in lulls. GT still managed to control the wing in the gusts but then the wind swung round to the NW and stayed there as some light spots of rain arrived. After some discussion on various items of paragliding theory, we called it a day.

Gusty wind day!

Yesterday (Friday 13th) I took paragliding taster students Paul Cunningham and Declan McGill to Skeagh on the strength of a favourable forecast despite calm conditions at home. Arriving at Skeagh we discovered that the NE wind was gusting up to 18mph - too rough for even the Firebird Trainer.

With nothing better to do we went round to Robin Young's where it was just as gusty at the car park. After a chat to one of the radio control model flyers who was still in his car having reckoned it too gusty even for his model, we went down to the bottom landing area to show the newcomers a bit about the site.

We had only been there a few minutes when the landowner, Campbell Tweed arrived in his car to check out who we were. He was content when he recognised me and we had a short chat before he headed off. It seems there had been a bit of sheep stealing in Co. Antrim recently but we were innocent of any such suspicion!

Although still gusty, the wind was a good bit lighter so Paul and Declan were able to get a good bit of reverse launch ground handling before we called it a day after 5pm. Incidentally, Declan's father-in-law is Terry Moseley, former UHPC hang glider pilot and UHPC secretary and prominent in astronomy circles.

Blustery day at Skeagh again.

Yesterday (Friday) at Skeagh looked promising. Newcomers Willie Armstrong and Paul Cunningham on their first day were raring to go. The wind initially was northerly and a reasonable 10-12mph. With the BHPA required paperwork completed, we got set up on the lower slopes for the usual introductory daily inspection and ground handling among other basic explanations. I had noticed that the wind was now becoming a bit gusty and this was confirmed when I demonstrated ground handling with the medium Firebird F1rst wing - far too much of a handful for beginners.

So the secret weapon was deployed - the small Firebird Trainer. Both Willie and Paul had initial difficulty with reverse inflation and control but by concentrating on what they were doing right and encouragement for getting more things right, eventually both managed to keep the twitching wing overhead. As the afternoon wore on the wind and gusts increased. Martin Bates and Dermot Lagan joined us but by then the wind on top was 20mph. After a battle to keep his lightweight Skin wing from wrapping itself up on the ground, Martin had a short hop from half way down the hill. Dermot wisely decided not to fly and both of them left.

Shortly after they left, Willie Kane appeared - he had been working in the area and came up for a chat. Down at the bottom the wind was still gusty and increasing at times to 18-20mph. We called it a day and two happy chappies looking forward to more action on a better day.

Picture shows Willie, Paul and Martin.