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
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
Thanks for your help Wayne. It was good to meet the other HG pilots talk the walk! My vidio evidence makes it clear that I was guilty of not preparing for landing properly. I think that the preceeding bumpy flight had put me into info' overload. One is used to aproaching landing from the moment of take off with 2-300 ft to think about it and then when I turned into wind it all happened a bit to fast.See U tube IANRPARKER
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