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!

Almost forgotten!

Keep forgetting about this blog! Just got myself a website at last. Info on learning to paraglide in Northern Ireland is there.

Sat 26 March

Hi All   Martin Bates, Alan Lewis and I had some reasonable flying at Robin Young's on Saturday. Clag was down to the car park when we arrived so we went to Shane's. I had a couple of short hops in the 10mph wind which was coming and going and off to the east a bit. Had to slope land as no lift.   Went back to Young's. Clag had lifted and we flew. Wind off a tad to the east so had to work to get enough height to top land. Walked over to Sallagh bowl later, which was "on" but wind picked up and clag came down again. Finished off with a feed and a pint in the Meeting House!   Couldn't raise anybody on mobile phone so assume the Sl Gallion flyers got airborne (or the mast was blocking cellphones again). Got Dave Tweedie just as he was about to take off somewhere in Donegal !!   Cheers! Bertie