Good day at Robin Young's Hill on Tues 11 July.

Arriving at Robin Young's around lunchtime I could see Ian Cross and Danny Young high above the ridge. Dermot Lagan was getting ready at the top takeoff. I had two students, Keith McGeown and Paul Cunningham to come out. After 20mins or so they had not arrived so I decided to head up the hill anyway after a chat with Loudon Blair and his buddy who had arrived with their radio control model gliders.

Just when I had laid out my wing on the top, my students arrived. Of course I had come up without bringing the radio gear so another trip to the car was called for. I then took off for a short soaring flight to assess conditions  and found them to be mildly thermic. Coming in to top land I flew into sink - as did Danny who was approaching at the same time - and we both landed safely on the slope  leading up to takeoff.

After my two students had done a prompted site assessment, Keith was the first to venture skywards. He had two excellent 10min soaring flights, ending with top landings in the intended area with some approach guidance by radio.

By then the wind had picked up and was gusting to 22mph. After hanging around for a good while there seemed to be no lowering of windspeed and there was a slow drift to the north. Young's is notorious for turbulence in a N wind so we called it a day after a half hour theory discussion whilst waiting in vain for the wind to drop.

Gusty at Agnew's West

Having been away in Canada for the last month, I was keen to get some students out.

I met Aaron Wilson and Bill O'Donnell at Corr's Corner and took them to Agnew's West for a paragliding taster. Keith McGeown and Gerry Johnston - last minute CPN bookers - also came out.

The forecast had been promising - 6-9mph westerly. Of course when we got there we found the wind gusting 8-16mph at the bottom. Undaunted, after an introductory session, the good old Firebird Trainer was put to work. Aaron and Bill then took turns at trying to tame the beast in increasingly gusty winds - 8mph gusting to 16mph. They both succeeded in keeping up with its wild plunges in the gusts. That will stand them in good stead when they get their hands on the full size wing.

We quit after 3 and a half hours as the wind was increasing with gusts to over 20mph. Keith and Gerry wisely decided to parawait as the wind on top of the hill was gusting to 33mph!

Flying highlight of Canada trip was a number of flights in a Luscombe flown by a former member of an aerobatic display team.