Sat 28th Aug

Ian Parker & I arrived at Westbury to find conditions suitable for Ians soaring flights to complete his CP!
Ian achieved the two flights required each with a top landing-not bad as it was only his 3rd & 4th soaring flights!
Conditions in the air were as Brian described, however on occasions I found myself being bounced about quite roughly-which is disconcerting on an ATOS!
Top landing was also on the bumpy side as the wind had a westerly component.
Just one moment in the air which caused me a lot of concern. I was  at about 350ft ato on the westerly end of the ridge. The other pilots were high at the White Horse . I checked  before turning back towards the Horse & got a shock! Grant appeared about 50ft below me! 'Where the F### did he come from?' were my initial thoughts!
Grant was returning to the ridge low & fast from an upwind glide. I never saw him as the glider bended in with ground!
Hang gliders & rigids are difficult to see in the air-all I can advise is stay vigilant & expect the unexpected.
Stay safe

Westbury - Saturday 28th August

Despite a classic sky, not the best of days.  A brisk WNW wind confined most flying to around the bowl and chopped up the thermals.  The threatened showers never materialised although we did see some dark clouds at times.

Very much a "Sky Surfers outing" with Grant C., Wayne B., Derek M. and Oleg already onsite when I arrived, (11:30am-ish).  Four HG launched just as I arrived – this added a spurt of enthusiasm!  Sky Surfer newcomer and novice Ian P. completed another soaring flight and top landing towards his CP-rating.

I eventually launched around 1:15pm.  Conditions looked good with respectable heights.  I got to 800ft ATO and felt quite pleased with the U2's performance in the stronger conditions. (Others commented on it being rough.)  The top landing raised a little apprehensive with the entire area covered with Kite Surfers and general public.  Got down safely after a good 45min blowout.  Grant showed us all a clean pair of heels, of course, (cloudbase?)

The second flight was less pleasant. Got bounced around a bit as the wind strengthened to 20mph+ and backed more to the west.  After 30mins, decided to call it a day.  Most were packing up and leaving as I drove away at 5:30pm.  (Mind you, Oleg was sticking around – sunset was another 3-hours away!)

Some hardy PG were in evidence, but conditions not to their liking.  (The wind did increase as forecast during the entire day.)

Brian.

Sunday 22nd August - Anna's First Tandem!

On a wet and drizzly day at Barton, we met Gary Puhl from the Mighty Wessex, who had kindly agreed to give Anna a tandem flight. The weather didn't look promising with rain the whole drive down, but it was forecast to clear in the afternoon. We got to Barton and it was cloudy and wet so decided to skip off for a pub lunch.  After that the weather wasn't much better so we sat in the car to wait. Every so often the rain would stop, but only for long enough to get the gear out and wet!

Eventually, with the weather not looking like improving, Gary set the tandem up in the very light drizzle and strapped Anna in. With me as anchor man and Anna briefed, the wing was soon above them, but the wind appeared to be too light, typical! After a little bit of a ground handling master class from Gary, the wind seemed like it had picked up a tad, so the command was given to run. Off the edge with a scream of excitement and they were away. Gary hugged the cliff scratching his way back up and managed to turn and fly back past us just above cliff height. Within another beat they were at a comfortable height and could relax.

I filmed a bit and took some pictures from the ground for a while before deciding to join them in the air for a bit of aerial filming. I couldn't seem to find somewhere to park the wing that was in the airflow, but with the help of my ground crew holding the wing up my launch was not bad at all (even if I do say so myself!). It was quite refreshing flying around with the drizzle in your face in the lovely English summer weather. After around 40 minutes of boating around the rain increased so we all decided to land. 

Anna was over the moon and can't wait to start learning to fly herself. I have lost a retrieve driver but gained a flying partner!

I can't thank Gary enough for taking Anna up on the tandem, just need to save up for a new wing and training for Anna now.

Oh and you don't realise how big a paraglider is until you try to spread it out indoors to dry!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RAaQ9srWl2g

Richard

http://dukeofted.wordpress.com/

flying sat 28/8

No flying for myself at Westbury today like everywhere else blown out for us floppies, but it was good to see the skysurfers hangies out in force and having fun. New skills learnt nose man, well it gave me something to do for five mins.

Fw: sunday 15th aug.

----- Forwarded Message ----
From: Wayne Bevan <waynebevan23@yahoo.co.uk>
To: web06@wessexhgpg.org.uk
Sent: Tue, 17 August, 2010 10:25:13
Subject: sunday 15th aug.

Sunday Aug 15 @ Harting.

 

At 0730am it was soarable apart from the mist being in which cleared by 10am. This allowed Ian (red ribbon) to achieve 2 soaring flights. The latter being 20mins before landing at the bottom!

It then picked up to a NNE gusting between 15-20mph! It didn't get any better with height!

The 'home ridge' was quite bumpy & I indicated to Graham (red ribbon) to land which he did.

Progress to Beacon was easy on the Atos. Beacon has a NE'ly wooded bowl which normally works but was rough!

Progress east means a glide across a low section before connecting with the ridge at Treyford & then on to Didling. From 1000ft ato it was easy!

I headed for Cocking with the intention of crossing the gap-but not today as the wind had picked up & gusting to around 30mph!

Thermals were rough, broken with some heavy sink! Being within 200ft of the ridge meant the Atos was being bounced about!

I saw Sean's hang glider safely on the ground around Elstead-good decision as one doesn't want to get low there as landing options are interesting!

The glide back from Beacon to take off was interesting so after a 40minute flight I landed & called it a day!

safe flying

Wayne

Atos VR

Westbury 16th August

Nice afternoons flying at Westbury today. Wind was NNW backing to the west as the day went on, 20 - 25mph, rough at times. Four hangers in total.

First time out in a month so life is feeling good again!

James R

Ringstead Bay - 8th August 2010

Well Sunday was promising to be fantastic at Bell Hill, then the good weather moved to Combe, and then in the morning the good weather seemed to have disappeared! After looking at RASP hoping for somewhere that maybe, just maybe might be flyable, it was looking a bit pants. Hmm the south coast looks like it has a breeze and it is looking like WSW or maybe even SW. After talking Neil into a 2 hour drive to Dorset we decided to head to Ringstead rather than St. Albans as I hadn't yet made it to the cliffs despite flying there twice already. Neil had never been to Ringstead so it was going to be a new one for both of us.

The whole drive down we were looking at the trees not moving a bit and thinking that we have made a horrible mistake. But we pulled up at Ringstead to a 14mph SW breeze!

Neil was off first and after boating around the bowl for a bit went down for a slope landing. I took up as the wind picked up again and the air was surprisingly thermic and rough. I gained quite a bit of height and pointed towards the cliffs. I flew over the trees giving me a lifty line and made it to the houses where I did a few beats to gain back some height. Once over the main cliff the lift band was massive and the air the smoothest I have ever flown in (hence the large amount of photos!). Neil soon joined me on the cliffs and you couldn't drag us away from the cliffs. Flying out over the sea and doing spirals before racing back to the cliffs to climb back up, what a laugh. It was lovely to be able to kick back and enjoy the view for once without worrying about going down or keeping the wing above your head in rough thermals. I certainly wouldn't trade thermalling to base for this, but why not have your cake and eat it!  

My vario battery died about two and a half hours in and a bit later the call of nature decided it was time to land. An easy glide back into the rough(er) air of the bowl and straight into the back field for a nice touch down next to Shamus.

Richard

Harting, Sunday 8th Aug

 
Harting.
 
Arrived late at 11pm, as Lasham weather guru prdicted thermals wouldnt get going until midday.
By Midday it was just me, one modeller and no wind. Mostly zero, sometimes 2mph, but from any direction, it wasn't looking good (although the sky did!)
I was so confident I would go down I only put a ski vest & thin gloves. No birds, no indicators, took a chance at 1pm and circled to 4000ft, reaching base above the top landing field.
I spent and hour or so going 3 miles here, 4 miles there, but there were obvious routes. Flew back to the coast and played with the sea air (lower clouds at 4000, base now 4600), flew back inland an then west towards Buster & Mercury, finally arriving at the hill west of Mercury faced with a great line but airspace. Moved NE, and then a monumental street appeared, from north of Petersfield to what was probably newbury.....I flew to near Popham (West of Basingstoke), where base exceeded 5500 (could have been 6k, didn't look, eyes peeled for sailplanes) and then back to Harting via a few miles from Midhurst, to land in the 8mph south sea breeze at 4pm. Light clothing is usually a guarantee for getting a thermal, luckily it was just a bit cool at base.    
 
Surprised I was the only one there with such a good sky................
 
Nev