Blog entry

Saturday 17^th October - Butser North - PG

 

I don’t mind people knowing that I love Butser hill. The place has been good to me over the years but you have to treat it with the right attitude, take it for what it is.

Saturday was a typical example. Got there was 8.30. cold, clear skies with a smooth light NNE. Flew a short hop then updated Twitter. Soon Darren joined me and got some pleasant soaring in. By lunch time the wind had dropped and we were grounded, shorten Alun arrived. More short hops and tricky slope landings set the scene. A third pilot joined us, Tom, a regular of the Thames and Green Dragon sites, who hadn’t flown Butser before. He was given a detailed site tour by Darren. Shortly after the sky began showing hints of blues, the sun showed its face and the wind picked up with the arrival of punchy little thermals. Several fast climbs could be had, with Darren and Alun making good accounts of themselves. Our peak heights were just under 500ft ATO. Great to look down of the old hill once again! Unfortunately the NNE wind was pushing the thermals over the valley and I didn’t have enough height to venture into the No Man’s Land. Tom also flew at this point and flew well considering his apprehension to flying such a small and unusual site. Tom and Darren suffered small collapses but they were well handled.

 

By 3pm the thermals were gone, leaving behind a cold and lumpy air mass so we all called it a day.

 

A really enjoyable day with the challenging conditions making us feel all the more satisfied with our modest efforts.

 

You don’t need the alps when you have this place.

 

At butser we make a mountain out of a mole hill

 

 

Jason Smith

 

Saturday 17th October - Harting Down

Wind NNW-NNE 12-16MPH   The promising forecast did not realise as we were hampered by cloud being dragged in from the North sea.   A cold and overcast day saw some cumulus popping off for a short spell under the blanket of cloud. Louisa was first off followed by me and we both cored a weak climb to around 1600ft asl. Tim launched as we neared the top of our climb.   I headed off along the South Downs and passed two PG's soaring their 'secret site'. At this time the wind had a slight bit of West in it. The house thermal was evident again just 200 metres to the East of their take-off and I climbed with a sailplane to around 1600ft asl to give me easily enough height to cross the Cocking gap.   The wind strength was ideal and made ridge soaring the Downs easy all the way to the end and back. Lots of birds of prey evident again. Returning to the Cocking gap I past Tim on his rigid.   Here by the chalk quarry I tried for maybe 20 minutes to get a thermal to cross back and chickened out on my first attempt. 2nd go I attempted to cross with just 1127ft asl (about 400ft above the hill). I had reasonable air all along the glide and made it comfortably losing just 400ft.   Back at Harting Down was Neil Atkinson flying and I could see Louisa just going in to bottom land joining two others. She was shortly followed by another which may have been Shaun House but Tony Blackburn managed to top land.   I continued to fly around Harting region with Neil until I thought I'd see how Tim was getting on and waiting on the West side of the Cocking gap I watched Tim make it across but alas he was just a little to low and landed next to a farm on the West side of the gap.   Conditions worsened so I opted to top land as my hands were getting cold. An enjoyable if not spectacular day at Harting with another 38km out and return to add to the tally for the year.   Tony

Monksdown 17/10/09

A interesting if busy day at monks. Too many wings in a small site made games of who's gonna turn first quiet fun to watch from the ground but as the afternoon progressed pilots obviously decided that being at home in front of the fire was the place to be. It got quiet gusty again late afternoon which made for some "fun" flights with a couple of hundred ft ato achieved just the getting back down was the tricky bit, still four flights and 40 mins in the book made the day worth while

Nigel Beaven

Friday 16th October - Harting Down

This blog can be a double edged sword - I haven't managed to get any spare time to even try and go flying in the last month and reading about all of the good conditions we have been having has been a little painful.

I could take it no more and decided that work would have to be sacrificed for a day, and a great day it turned out to be. The forecast was a bit iffy suggesting murk until around 3pm. The sun was out here at home (Hamble) at around 9.30 so I headed off at 10. Driving through the A3 cutting it was pretty grey on the north side of the downs and there was even at one point some small water droplets on my windscreen.

On the hill it was smack on, at times it went a bit left but in the most part straight from the north. There were about 30000 aero modellers out, more than I have ever seen at Harting.

First spot of blue sky appeared at 12 and after a quick bite to eat I was off for a 3 hour excursion. By 1pm the sky looked great with plenty of climbs, some over 5 on the averager, plenty of traffic; models (lots), sailplanes and even a Chinook (thankfully he kept his distance).

Life is good again....................James Roy

West Firle Thursday 15th October

What an Autumn! Left work at midday, passed the Dyke at about 1pm
where there wasn't much happening, collected my wing from the loft and
was on firle at 1.30. People thermalling 500ft-ish above both Bo Peep
and Firle. Scratched for 10 minutes then got a could climb upto
cloudbase (about 3400ft asl) where it was a chilly 4 celcius according
to my vario. Drifted a little towards Newhaven then pushed out towards
Lewes with a few others under great looking cloud streets, climbs upto
2.5m/s on the averager though mostly 1-ups, all marked by buzzards.
Whole ridge was working and the flats out in front, so easy enough to
stay up high. Sky started the blue out by 3pm so landed and beat the
traffic back to work. Hope nobody noticed the long lunch break.....

Harting Down Monday October 12th

Soarable right up to about 11.30 but after that wind dropped almost nothing at times. Tim, Brian, Steve Gale, Paul Harvey, Alan (surname evades me) and myself turned up. Tim had a problem rigging so had to go home.   I had my first attempt at flying when I spotted a buzzard circling out in front about 250 metres away. It flew off I'm told as soon as I joined it. Got a very weak climb to drift along at 4 mph and it was a NW flow. It petered out to a zero over the hill so opted to top land.   2nd attempt around 2pm and joined another buzzard to the left of take-off but it too flew off as I joined it. I failed to find the thermal initially but headed out from the hill a bit to core a 2-3 up that eventually stopped at 1400ft asl. Headed out to South Harting...nothing headed... NW towards two birds seemingly circling but they were just playing with each other and I landed in the field beneath them!   A friendly couple watching us all at take-off kindly retrieved me! Many thanks to them. Steve Gale had a go on his Sky floater, he bottom landed and I retrieved him. Paul Harvey had a go and managed to hill soar the beacon before opting to top land.   I had a 3rd go as the sky still looked so good I had to try again. Took-off 4.30 and could hill soar the beacon in a 12mph NW. Had a real privilege sharing the sky with a Harris Hawk, what a stunning looking bird these are.   Alan had a go and managed several beats during this time before opting to bottom land. I got a weak climb to give enough height to top land. No classic flying but I enjoyed it all.   Tony

Wednesday 14 oct 09 Mercury

MERCURY mid day.  Forecast changed overnight showed Easterly increasing 6 - 8 during afternoon.
Just about ok at 12:15. Had 25 mins and a bit of height then it went light.  Mike still in the air.
Picked up a bit about 13:30 so had another fly.  Then light again.  Packed up at 16:30.
Cows had tried to eat my windsock and broken a pole.  Got back to the car just as another cow pushed the wing mirror and snapped it off completely, oh dash it £££££££££.  TIP: put your wing mirrors in and save money.  All in all worth the hour in the air.  See you all on Friday at the AGM.  Leaving Gosport at 18:50 if anyone needs a lift.
 
Alun

---

Download Messenger onto your mobile for free. Learn more.

Saturday 10th October - Bell Hill

 
Saturday 10th October - Bell Hill
 
Around 7 Hangies and 20 PG's out. Perfect conditions; a nice 10 Mph WNW, with gentle thermals whic went to 3000ft asl if you persisted long enough (you needed to!). Tim & I on our Vr's had a nice time crusing the area, and a number of PG's went XC (although I did noticed a few returning on foot shortly after)
 
Nev

---

Have more than one Hotmail account? Link them together to easily access both.

Bell Hill saturday 10th

Neville and i flew at Bell wind 10 WNW with gentle thermals to not very high Nev showed off as usual scuttling about the sky but failing to perform any epic XC later joined by a couple more HGs (Everard , Richard and Tony -you should get out more - Blackburn) who joined  in the autumn frolics Loads of PGs - to many to mention TK

Saturday Telegraph hill dorset (10.10.09)

A days flying on my old training hill I got down there midmorning to be greeted by 8 wings in the air and 6 more waiting to take off. This made for quite busy sky's with the gods chasing each other up and down the ridge as the thermals came and went. In the end a large group settled into a thermal and made they're way over the back and away. Now with the sky's quieter it was time for us lesser gods to play which we did in abundance I got to 700 ato in the thermal and the ridge lift with the occasional gusts keeping you on your toes. Five flights latter totaling 45 mins air time the lift dissipated and the day was over. I made my way the 2.1/2 hrs home a Veryyy happy boy :-)

Harting - Thursday 8th October

A very pleasant afternoon, suprisingly bouyant considering the rain we've had the last few days. Completely blue with moderate 12-16mph NNE breeze. Tony S. and Alan B. joined me early afternoon.  Tony had the first launch of the day and immediately grabbed a thermal to 1,600ft.  He disappeared off along the Downs to Graffham and beyond - not to be seen for most of the afternoon.  I had a 25min flight then landed to help Alan off for a short soaring flight followed by a bottom landing.  Second flight I reached the Beacon - it was working consistently and I got several climbs over 1,000ft ATO.  Mooched along the Downs to Treyford and back.  Tony reappeared and cruised back to launch where he lost most of his height.  Wind had gone a tad more easterly.  He scraped back to the Beacon and topped up again. Lift was fading on the Beacon so I elected to glide back for a top landing. Lost all my height, fouled up the top landing approach, (overshot) and ended up in the bottom field.  Alan kindly retrieved.  Back up to launch, got Alan off on his second flight then packed up for home.  Another 90mins for the logbook.  Excellent.

Brian.

Butser West Sunday 4th October 2009

Early conditions fair. Sky clearing. Wind straight on the hill with variations to north and south.
Mike and Jason in the air at 10am. Launched into small pockets of lift up to a few hundred feet out front.
First flight to Oxenbourne (it takes some bottle to get away from the hill the first time,doesn't it?) came back into strong sink.  Two hours of flying.  Good day had by all, Mike, Jason, James, Tips, Neil and lots of spectators.  Two hang glider launches and landings in the stubble fields.
Alun 

---

Add other email accounts to Hotmail in 3 easy steps. Find out how.

Westbury Thursday 1-10-09

Wind varied NNW 10-30kph (according to my brauniger).  A couple of hangies 1000ft ato by 1pm. However conditions seemed to get really going after 2pm. I climbed out and headed NNW and got 9.5 km upwind before it shut down. Headed back to Westbury ridge and soared here until 3.30 and got up again and headed ENE.   This proved to be the best part of the day and I hopped from cloud to cloud. Generally weak climbs with the odd 5 up. The wind had now dropped too, often below 17kph at base. Here I was laughing to myself thoroughly having a good time. Turned back to Westbury at around 10 km out and then when near Bratton camp I picked up a cloud street to head NNW again.   The street ended so headed West but never connected with the cloud I aimed at so turned back when 4km out from Westbury to land back at the car at 5pm.   A very enjoyable flight, what a great start to October! :-)   Tony

Butser West Face Friday 2/10/09

Thirteen pilots turned up on the West face today. Phillipe even cycled there from Portsmouth now that's what I call dedication. Pablo decided work could wait, the Twitter messages had worked their magic again and he appeared on the hill with his new pod harness. The wind started quite light and northerly but slowly came around and picked up. Two made it over to Oxenbourne but it wasn't working that well over there. Most people managed a couple of good flights.  I think at one point we had five in the air. Eventually it picked up and Brian had the hill to himself, hang glider heaven. The wind eventually eased and lenticular sort of clouds started to appear out front. It was floppy time again. The North end of the ridge started to get really buoyant and the whole area seemed to lift. Jan Jason and Brian made the most of it getting good height but they couldn't get away. A bit of a mixed bag but great to be still having lovely sun and flying in October.
Peter

Harting - Wednesday 1st October

A late start dictated local sites and a trip to Harting. Rigged and ready by 2:30pm. A few models wafting in the light N-NNW breeze.  Morning cloud (post-frontal) cleared to give clear blue skies, incredible visibility - and no lift.  (Not unusual for Harting.)  Had three scratchy flights never getting above 100ft ATO.  Best lift over the trees in the NW corner of the Beacon spur.  Good fun working weak lift.  Last flight ended up at the bottom for a satisfying nil-wind landing.  Long walk back up, collect the car and pick up the glider in beautiful late afternoon sunshine.  Whilst loading up the car, a familar "wokka, wokka" sound got VERY close.  Chinook helicopter flew west to east at tree-top level - between me and the Downs.  Could see the glint in the pilot's eyes.  Glad I had already landed!

Brian.

Devils Dyke 1st October

Arrived at the dyke10.30 to find HGs flying Conditions NNw 10mph rigged and took off  1130. fly around mainly at cloud base for 2  hours landed defrosted and repeated  for 2 more hours later Better day than Tuesday ? maybe but definitely colder 4 rigids  a few Hgs  and lots of Pgs all enjoyed another good day TK