Club News

Well it’s been a long time coming but we have just a flyable weekend!!

Friday saw Martin on Ballaugh easily staying up more than a grand ATO.  Myself, Giles and Northy assembled on top.  I took off first into the light NNW breeze.  Scratched a bit then  gained some and then got rapidly blown back for a swift landing on the C risers…….It was forecast to drop…So northy and Giles later had a go and enjoyed a long soaring flight till dusk..I had to go.

Saturday dawned very light and saw some pilots on Snaefell whilst Watty decided on South Barrule.  I thought I would join him and was rewarded with the sight of him staying up on my arrival. When I got to the top he had gone down ..So it was scratchy….just the way I like it.  Take off, scratch a little and then slope land.  Did several of these with the occasional decent thermal coming through, one of which hoisted me up to about 200’ ato allowing my first few 360’s over the back from the hill of the year.  Lovely view of the old fort..  Noel then appeared and had a scratch.. This was about the time the first fire appeared….Someone had lit a fire on the path up the hill.  It was very spectacular to fly over.

Things then picked up as the thermals died giving easy soaring to the pilots who had come from Snaifell (Keith, Si and Jamie, Giles and Ste…7 on the hill) as more and more fires were lit it necessitated flying over or through smoke to get to the landing area, this gave me a right chucking about at one point….See Noels pics.

Sunday saw several pilots on Snaifell and Slui Curn.  Still waiting for a report.  I went to Snaifell later but it was blown out and clagged in..

Nice to get the legs working again..

Dan

Flying on Ballaugh, Isle of Man, 2nd February 2007 with Verge and Marty in super smooth wind.

Only the second time this year it looked as if there would be a short interlude between the almost constant gales. Starting the day light north and increasing to ESE 30mph plus associated heavy rain. Plenty of time as tide not out til late in day for emergency Laxey landing. Got talking to Steve a prospective member who has in past done HG course and hopes to do a para course this year. Still loads of time til I find:-

a) I have refitted my sail incorrectly after repairs by Mike Pollard, so have to take off and refit.  Probably just as well as out falls a bloody great fat hardback book in the sail!!!! (so I had a flat surface to apply a couple of further tiny stick on patches).

b) Cant get a mobile signal so have to walk all the way up to the water tower while glider rocks in the increasing wind.

Continue reading Bulgham Bay Tuesday 16th January

Happy New Year all.

Did anyone fly Staarvey as it should have been well paraglidable there.

First day for ages wind looked as if it would drop to 20mph! As usual base reasonable height both morning and evening but down on the hill when I flew at 1pm!  As usual, Slieau Curn south. WSW measuring 6-8mph at the gate. I knew that was wrong but at least it shouldn’t be blown out on top.

On top I managed to put a nasty little rip in the sail, so wasted time returning to the car and patching the sail with duct tape. (Anybody know if there is anyone doing sail repairs on the Island)??

Having wasted valuable time, base had descended from top of Freoghane to take off height and measured wind at take off somewhere around 25 mph!! However take off no problem and it felt much lighter. In the air my vario showed the wind speed varying 10 to 18 mph. ie say only 14 mph. That was confirmed by being able to fly really fast into wind and with the lift coming and going but not rough at all.

Cloudbase was only zero to 200 feet max. So it was just a case of staying OUT of the best lift away from the hill, until being in danger of losing out altogether, then back in beneath take off to top up. Towards the end the cloud cleared enough to allow me to 400 ft ATO.

Not the best flying but interesting and I got nearly 1 hour before landing for my first time at Kirk Michael School after getting a snippet of lift over the north side of the Glen Wyllin valley where the seagulls were soaring quite happily. I was lucky to be noticed by Simon who kindly retrieved me.

Paragliding on Slieau Curn 17th December 2006

Well, what can I say.

Verge (Northy) and I had a wonderful 45 minutes flying the SE face of South Barrule this afternoon. 

See the videos below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5auRFDYG2zQ

and

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68-YskFH-1c

Wind was SE and a smooth 16 mph.

See you on the hill dudes.

Giles

My account of the weekend (16th/17th Dec 06) …..

Was woken by Northy at 9.30 saying he was heading over to Slieu Curn.

Got to gate just before 10 am and had a chat with Martin. It was pretty strong but decided to wander up and see how Northy was getting on. He read 18 mph on his anenometer; I read 20 mph on my identical model.

So we headed off to Starvey inspired by Watty’s Staarvey accounts. Got there, had a chat with Roger the farmer, headed up, flew for 75 mins, with Noel and Northy and Stephen, landed for a pee and a chat and then had another 20 minutes with Northy until boredom sent us off in a slow dash to the sand cliffs by the old brown station to see if we could get anywhere.

Both of us gently rotored out with one field to go – maybe if we’d had a bit more height….

Sunday – checked out Dan and Keith on Staarvey at midday on my way to Peel shoprite and back to get Sunday joint – they were doing nicely but decided to head off to Slieu Curn as it was lighter than Saturday.

Was first off and although it was quite light it was very buoyant with a low cloud base. Had a lovely 20 minutes or so until Swalesy M, Si, Northy and Keith arrived by which time it was dropping off.

I think I had the best of it. Got my video camera out on Sunday – see clip below.

Giles

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6kVX2u5QWEw