Soaring Dungiven

With a calm morning but a light SW forecast, Martin Bates and I headed to Dungiven at lunchtime. We found the wind on the west face 10-14mph. I took off and found patches of best lift in the bowl to the north. I boated around for a while but with only light gloves my fingers got so cold that I came in for a top landing. Martin then flew - also soaring but also with no great height to be had. Gradually the wind eased  to 6-8mph resulting in Martin making a bottom landing.

I drove down to collect Martin and discovered there was no wind in the landing area. However on getting back to the hill we still had 10-12mph W wind! I took off for another flight but had to work hard to stay up in the intermittent blobs of lift coming through. Eventually I started sinking to takeoff level again and came in for a slope landing.

We amused ourselves for a while ground handling before packing up and heading up the Glenshane Pass. Stopping at the Ponderosa we had an excellent meal, then headed to the Dunsilly Hotel near Antrim for the UHPC AGM. Usual good craic there and new committee elected including some of the old committee for continuity.

Photo shows Martin airborne:

Sunny and cold.

Thursday 24 November 2016

With a forecast NE wind for the afternoon I headed to Robin Young's. Wind was very light so I walked to takeoff, only to find the wind very light and blowing along the cliff from the east. By then I had got an email from Ian Cross reporting conditions flyable at Agnew's Hill and LOA clearance had been obtained from ATC. A quick peek over the back of Young's showed two paragliders soaring Agnew's in the distance.

Just as I was about to head to Agnew's and not looking forward to the steep climb up, an old friend and former UHPC hang glider pilot, Loudon Blair and his friend Jack Montgomery arrived with their radio control model gliders. After Jack's story about being flung into the field by the electric fence on a previous occasion, we made sure to use the proper stile.

After launching his soaring model and flying around for a while, Loudon handed me the controls and I had a most enjoyable time cruising the model around to Ballycoose and back. There was fairly consistent light lift out in front of the car park and when I handed control back to Loudon he brought it in for a perfect landing at our feet.

I decided to head over to Agnew's and arrived to see Ian landing out in front of the cliff and well away from the cars, having lost what lift there was. There was another wing still in the air (Steve Hill) - see photo - and three cars on site but I decided I couldn't face the climb up so late in the day and with wind probably dying (according to the nearby wind turbines) so I contented myself by taking a photo and headed home.

Another wasted journey!

Having heard there was snow on the road at Dungiven I dithered about heading out, although the forecast was reasonable with wind supposed to ease. Donal Hamilton was thinking of heading to Dungiven too but a bit put off by news of snowy road. Meantime Tony Davis had headed to Sl. Gullion.

Since I had been grounded by the weather for a while now and believing the forecast of easing wind, I decided to head to Dungiven anyway. On the way I got a message to say that Donal had decided to go to Sl. Gullion. Arriving at Dungiven W, I discovered that the road all the way to the top was bare tarmac, thanks to the westerly sunshine. There was still a light dusting of snow on the grass. The wind was on the hill but 18-20mph and gusting. Too strong for me. There was low cloud on the hills upwind but Benbradagh well clear of cloud.

After about an hour I took another wind reading - now gusting to 21mph! So much for the forecast! Aside from the wind, the cloud had now come down on the hill so I left, coming out of the cloud about 100ft down the hill. Another wasted journey.

To complete my day, I learned that there had been good flying at Sl. Gullion!

One of those days!

Forecast was a bit 'iffy' but winds looked light except for Met Office low level wind chart giving over 23mph at 1,000ft. Deciding that that would be too much, I cancelled training and went to visit my sister in Magherafelt.

Approaching the Castledawson roundabout I decided a quick trip to Dungiven would do no harm even though there were a few spits of rain. Arriving at the deserted west face at Benbradagh I found the wind bang on the hill and 14-16mph and showers in the distance. With nobody else around I waited a while and checked the wind again as it began to feel a bit gusty although the showers upwind seemed to fizzle out before they hit Dungiven.

The wind was now gusting 14 - 19mph but not severely. I nevertheless decided it would not be a good idea to go flying on my own. The fact that wisps of orographic cloud were now starting to drift up the hill made the decision for me - that was it!