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. :-)