From Wind and Rain to Brilliant Sunshine

I would tell you how great the BP Cup was at the Long Mynd but unfortunately it did't work out that great for me. I probably landed very close to where I took off which doesn't really work in a comp. Never mind maybe I'll do better at the next round.

The camper van was still in Madrid just as I left it. I spent the night there again was woken by the sound of diggers, construction workers and the like from the field next door. Decided to make my way to Ager and if I found a campsite on the way I would stop over. Didn't think there was a rush as it was looking windy anyway. As it was I didn't find a campsite on the way so at about 8pm got to Ager and found the campsite.

Friday 24th was too windy to fly so I went out on my bike and swam in the pool. Saturday 25th I had two flights :-) Both quite short but very enjoyable all the same. The first flight I had a little collapse and didn't think much of it but my hands were a little shakey for a minute. Flew in the evening it was very smooth but not a lot of lift. Today had a flight and I managed to find a thermal and stayed in it. Hooray at last I can do it! Took some photos too.



Had a flight on Sunday 25th again wasn't a long one but I did get a nice thermal from the lower ridge and worked it back up to take off height. In the afternoon went with Nicky and Mark for a swim in the Lake that you can see in the photo above.

Piedrahita, Spain. 27th June - 13th July

All I can say is that I didn't come last in the British Open competition in Spain. It was close though. Never mind I should only get better :-) My first day was my best day, flying 27.8k. I landed(not very gracefully) a short distance to the road where I found a bar to wait for a retreive. I didn't fly the second task and the third I didn't make it over the pass. The forth and final task I felt ill so didn't was to take off and risk throwing up in the air and not being able to get down.

The Saturday night was I bit of the the party and came out of the bar and it was light outside! Needless to say I didn't fly that day. The day after I flew, it was just a little further on than the first flight, mind you I was flying 71 kph downwind. Suppose I shouldn't be disappointed about it as it was my second longest flight ever.

I flew the next day but wasn't happy about being thrashed around by the thermals, so landed in the smallest field I could find surrounded by trees and power lines! The flight the next day I borrowed a flight deck so I could take some ballast. Unfortunately I sort of took off but then came crashing down on my knee. It's alright now just a bit bruised.

Looking forward to the Long Mynd round. Hopefully I can take some of this Spanish weather back with me. :-)

SIV in Annecy 22nd - 25th June 2009

The SIV course with Jocky was excellent, even if we did have to get up at the crack of dawn to drive up to take off. I have to thank Scottish Sean for keeping me laughing when I sometimes felt like crying! I will never forget when just before doing symmetric tucks, Sean said it he would think it was like pulling his wife's knickers down.

Another memorable moment would be landing in the bullrushes at the end of the lake. For some unknown reason I couldn't make it to the landing field so had no real option apart from the bullrushes. I landed alright and managed to gather everything up. It was very difficult to find a way out as it was surrounded by trees and bushes. At one point I contemplated getting in the lake and walking round to the campsite but though better of it. Eventually I found a path and I walked across a little stream and felt a snag, I looked round only thinking I'd caught a line on something to find my reserve all strung out behind me. F**k! Well I couldn't carry everything so I unclipped the glider and carried on walking until I found somewhere that I could pack up. Once I was packed up it still took me another twenty minutes to get out. Needless to say I missed my second flight that day but I have got a repacked reserve. :-)

The spiral dives where the most exciting for me as I managed to scream so loud that even Jocky heard me from the boat. :-o It was great to watch the video at de-brief so you could see that what you did looked nothing near as bad as it felt in the air. If I do another SIV I would consider going to Turkey again as you have a lot more height and there are no bullrushes to land in.

BP Cup Round 1 - Scottish Borders

Saturday 9th May - First day of the competition was not flyable. It was raining and windy.

Sunday 10th May - After a little walk up Broughton Heights hill a task was set for a goal field 44k away. The wind was quite light and but to the right of us it looked like it was raining and the clouds to the other side were building nicely. I eventually took off, I went down below take off but managed to scrape back up again. Ten minutes later I had a collapse, when I looked up at the wing I saw more of the top side than I would have liked :-( I let my hands up and it came out and I flew away. It took me a few minutes to persuade myself not to land and I got enough height to go over the back. I landed after 10k which I was a little disappointed about but in another way quite glad to be down on the ground.




Monday and Tuesday were beautiful sunny days but too windy. On Monday we did have a long hike up a hill with paragliders only to walk them all the way down again, but before we did we took a walk along the top for a fantastic view (and I don't mean me).



Tuesday evening was an open mic night and I eventually after printing the chords for the guitarists sang "Heart of Glass".

Wednesday was the start of the British Open, but because of the bad weather forecast not many people turned up. For good reason too the competition was finally cancelled on Friday morning.

BP Cup results after Round 1

My First XC of 2009

Saturday 2nd May looked a good day to go flying. The wind was quite light but I thought I could do with some ground handling practice if nothing else. When I got to the hill there were already about ten paragliders already flying so there was no time to waste!



I had one short flight of about 15 minutes and slope landed, it wasn't pretty but it was better than a walk up from the bottom. I decided that I had earnt my lunch so had a little break. By the time I finished the wind was starting to pick up nicely so I got ready a off I went again. This time I got in a thermal that took me up to cloudbase, which was about 1000 metres above take off. At that point and with that height I couldn't help but go xc.



This is a view of Church Stretton. I was already getting a little cold at this point and had trouble trying to switch off the camera. In the end I used my teeth!

One hour and fifteen minutes later I landed at Brown Clee which is around 20k away. I packed up and walked for about two hours before I got a lift. I was a bit tired and sore the day after but it was worth it. :-)

First Flight

I flew yesterday in Snowdonia, North Wales. It was my first flight in almost ten months so I was a little nervous. It was a long walk up, I'm glad I kept up those gym sessions now. The take off area was just covered in braken, which loves to hold on to the lines. I eventually took off and went straight up, great I thought, then went to the left to stay in the lift then bang, a collapse on the left. I did what I needed to do and it came out. Phew! The rest of the flight was less eventful and after about twenty minutes I landed at the bottom. The red blob is where I took off from.

Camper van search successful

I have found a camper van :-) It's not the van conversion type that I first thought about but having looked inside them I soon realised that there wasn't much space and if I'm going to live in this thing for a few months then I would have to look for something bigger. The camper that I found has a bed above the driver's seat so it's ideal for going to bed without the hassle of moving everything about. Don't need that after a long day and a few drinks!

Took it for a test drive on Monday and I can tell you it's no Subaru. Manual choke and no power steering, but it's great once it warms up and on a straight line :-)

The weather has not been too good for flying, it's been alright for golfing. I'm almost thinking I should have shipped my paraglider and took the clubs as carry on!

Where's the sun?

This is my 3rd day back in the UK. I decided to go for a run this morning, it was a little foggy but at least it wasn't raining. Didn't go too far but my ears were frozen, too bad I packed all my hats. :-(



As flying didn't look like an option today I looked at some camper vans instead.