FOOTLAUNCHJune
It’s been a busy month for flying. Hurrah!
May has blessed us with a smattering of excellent
flying days. Let’s hope it continues.
The 11th
was a spectacularly good day on the Malverns – especially for pgs. The light
ENE and a 4500+ cloudbase tempted around 50 pilots away from their day jobs and
the train service from Hereford to Malvern saw an unusually large number of
people with hefty rucksacks using the facility later that afternoon!
The month ended with
a couple of cracking days at MHGC’s spiritual seaside home, ‘The Shrine’. Good
to see the new HG pilots getting more airtime there; Jim Clewitt finally flew
the hotship he bought from ‘Honest Dec’ Whilst Tony
Lauricella took off for a top to bottom and landed back on top 2 hours later!
Next club meeting; on Wed 8th June. Barbeque at Ken Shail’s place. Ken’s house is on the B4208 just south of the
crossroads at the Three Counties Showground. Approx map ref is SO793422. Bring
a burger!
SAFETY MATTERS and other stuff BHPA Safety Notice Issued by Angus Pinkerton – Chairman of the Flying & Safety committee. 15 March 2005. Dangers of altered paraglider brake lengths. Two accidents where paragliders entered a deep stall during a winch tow launch have been investigated.
In both cases it was found that the brake handle positions had been adjusted from the manufacturer’s standard setting. On one glider the brakes were found to be 27cm short, and 15 cms of line had been cut off. The other glider’s brakes were also mis-set (to a lesser extent) and there was also 5 – 6cms of shrinkage due to the glider being wet.
With the brake lines replaced and the handles correctly set both gliders exhibited standard certified flight characteristics and no tendency to deep stall.
There is absolutely no reason for pilots to ever move brake handle positions. The correct manufacturer’s certified position should be maintained. This will give the amount of slack required to allow acceleration systems to work properly and will ensure that the glider will recover from a deep stall and other situations.
Pilots purchasing second-hand gliders should check that the brakes are set as per manufacturer’s specification. Service centres should make checking the correct brake line length a standard check.
-end-
Military Low Flying
Anyone considering going over the back of the Malverns during the week should have a look at the MOD’s web site on low flying activities. Obviously, low flying RAF occur all over the place but LFA 7(T) as I understand it is a designated tactical training area. Here is a link to what’s happening there during June. Looks pretty busy. LFA 7(T) is the bit right in the middle of Wales. Best keep at cloudbase if you are in the area!
http://www.mod.uk/issues/lowflying/timetable.htm
Here’s a link to a map of the LFAs
http://www.mod.uk/linked_files/uk_lfas.gif
The only info I have is gleaned from this site so I’m no expert on the matter but it’s well worth keeping informed then at least you’ll know what has happened as you are being spewed out of a Tornado’s orifice…
Rich Sheppard
Elan Valley News Update
The site will be closed until June 15th
2005. This is at the request of the
graziers as they wish to resettle the sheep on the hill without our
disturbance. Please respect this temporary
closure to help keep the excellent relations we have with the graziers
and the Élan Valley Trust.
Also when flying resumes at the site the Rangers have asked that we report any
motor vehicles that are using the hills or local paths. So if you see any
motorbikes or 4x4s on the site or on any of the local trails please report the
type, number, location and date to
Pete Jennings on 01597 810880.
NEWS
Overseas news
Hi Malvern flyers,
Just in case you thought I'd totally disappeared off the face of the planet, I
haven't quite, it's just taken a little while for me to be in a position to
tell you what the flying is like out here in Canberra.
Anyway last weekend I finally managed to get a conjunction of gliders,
car to transport them, Aussie Federation membership and some sane flying
weather. Headed out to Mount Spring, a ~500 foot hill owned by one of the
local pilots, 40 minutes drive from my house.
Access to the top is easy; just take your 4-wheel drive up the track. It's not
quite as rough as the track up to Merthyr used to be, but not far off.
The local culture is to leave keys in the ignition so that someone can bring
your car down the hill when you bottom land. You
wouldn't do that at Merthyr would you?
It's the official start of winter on Wednesday, so in the air the thermals are
not much in evidence, very useful following my long lay
off. I managed a couple of very pleasant hours in ridge lift on the HG
last week. Today I completed the legal formalities with a check flight
on the PG. Just a top to bottom, but at least I'm now free to do my own
thing.
Cross country potential? I hear you ask....
What do I know about that!
I figure that there's at least 50km of dry flatland over the back before
hitting the horizon and the edge of my topographic map. Keep going for a
couple of hundred km and you run into the Coast somewhere South of Sydney.
The other direction is served by the site at Lake George. I've not flown
there yet, but it looks stunning. There's a ~15 mile long escarpment
conveniently facing the prevailing wind. Someone seems to have stolen the
lake, so the site currently boasts a landing field whose size would be
conveniently measured in square kilometres. Could be a long walk out if
you chose to use it all though.
Oh yes, the kangaroos. There's plenty of them bouncing around the
hill and the landing field as dusk approaches. One of the idiot beasts
decided to park itself in the middle of the track as I was driving down the
hill this evening and took some persuading before it would move. They're also
on the menu at some of the local restaurants. Tasty!
Look out for the next instalment of my Antipodean adventures coming just as
soon as I've had some.
Fly safely
Simon Dillworth
Weather Station news
The following is an email to Bryan from Bluewave:
Hi Bryan, Yes it reached us ok. We have just
completed the conversion from a cabled standard unit to use our own
BlueWave transmitter system and unit will be sent to you within a day or so
once tests have been completed. We have supplied you with a Vantage
Pro2 ISS base with newer type rain collector; I’m sure you will be more
then pleased with the unit when you receive it. A newer Solar Sensor will also be
supplied as we have just launched this new product, which will supersede
the older version. Kind Regards Dr. Kevin Ellis BlueWave Technologies UK
The Cumbria
Soaring Club is requesting that all of its members contact their MP with
regards the Single Payment Scheme and the inclusion of paragliding and
hang-gliding in the list of ‘Activities with further restrictions – subject to
a 28 day limit).
Attached is a
pro-forma (let me know if you want
a copy – RS) letter that we are sending to our MPs – it
would be good to think that the whole PG / HG community could be seen to be
united against these proposals.
Please feel free
to distribute this to your members and to urge them to ‘fight the cause’.
Regards, Simon
Raven. Cumbria Soaring Club (Club
Contact).
Who needs a vario?
Okay, it’s a rhetorical question. We all do. Despite tales you occasionally hear from some pilots of being able to fly just as well without a vario, the fact is that we just have not got the biological software or hardware that birds have developed over the millennia.
What prompted me to consider how we can successfully stay up without instrumentation was a flight I had at Hay Bluff the other month. In my usual shambolic way I ended up on the hill with my PG but with my vario still in the car. Laziness dictated that I flew without it. Turns out I had a great flight - mostly out of ridge lift. And I found it fun to try and use my surroundings to guess where the lift was. It goes without saying that anyone can stay up on a ridge because we can all see where the lift should be. Thermals are different however, but it is not impossible to work lift away from the ridge. It doesn’t take any superhuman bird-like abilities either. There are lots of clues we can use to optimise our use of the air - even in conjunction with a vario - and I’ve listed the ones I can think of: 1) The feel of the air is useful but has to be considered with care. We can only detect acceleration forces. Anyone who has used thermals will know what I’m talking about when things suddenly become ‘lively’ and you know that you should be watching the vario. If you haven’t got a vario all you know is that there may be lift about but after that initial surge you don’t know (unless you are really low!) whether it is lift or just less sinky air that may still see you going down.
2) In an area such as Wales you can use hills as oblique markers to see if the tops are rising or falling in respect to the horizon or background feature. This is just as anyone does when making an approach to land using the constant aspect method. It is surprising how sensitive to small changes in height this can be but you do have to take into account your horizontal movement in respect to the marker.
3) Watch other pilots and not just those going up. Just before my first ever cross country flight I was following another glider along the ridge. My vario was bleeping away and the glider in front was staying level with me but after a few seconds he started to fall away. At this point I decided I’d better circle before I too flew out of the lift – which I did, all the way to cloudbase! I could have easily done this without a vario; at least for the initial part of the climb.
4) Other visual clues. During the summer the air is alive with birds chasing their dinner. Swifts, Martins and Swallows flock around thermals full of insects and it is a sure-fire thing that there will be lift when you see these birds flying around a small localised area. Any soaring birds, such as Buzzards and gulls, will be circling if there is lift around but remember that these birds can stay up in almost nothing (plus they can flap).
5) Use you nose. I was at around 2000’ above the ground the other day when I got a whiff of smoke. Sure enough my vario began making agreeable noises. About a mile upwind I could see a fire. The fire wasn’t causing the thermal but its smoke was getting drawn into one. I could see from the track of the smoke near the ground that it was being affected by some localised wind caused by the lift. You can sometimes smell other things – not all of them pleasant.
6) Clouds. When you are high, heading for clouds is probably the best way of finding lift. It isn’t guaranteed though and if you arrive too late there may be nothing and without a vario you have to start using other clues. Some days are better than others in this respect and good-looking clouds may not bear fruit when they look as if they should. Other days when clouds start to spread out can actually provide large areas of gentle lift that you can just waft around in if you are high enough initially.
7) Ground features by themselves are less useful if you don’t have a vario because they only increase the possibility of finding lift. All you are doing is acting on a hunch – you still need to be able to use the lift should you fly into some, which is difficult low down as thermals are usually smaller and less uniform. This is when a vario comes in dead handy! As with clouds, other clues have to be used in order to determine what is happening. An into wind ridge is easier if you chance upon one…
8) Don’t panic! If you can remain patient and objective you have a better chance of staying in the air. It takes time to determine if you are climbing or not and sometimes you have to work on gut feeling for a few turns. I find that when on a slower flying paraglider I worry less than on a hang glider about going down (I’m probably too busy using all my panic quota on REALLY going down in a bundle of washing!) and I seem to find it easier to stay airborne.
9) Why bother flying without a vario? Well, the batteries may die when you are halfway to goal, you may have left it a mile away in your car or you may just find it fun to turn it off and test your judgement in really quiet flight. I think it also helps you to better exploit of your vario when you do use it.
Richard Sheppard THE COUNT OF MONTENEGRO
Montenegro is a small country, part of the former Yugoslavia, due to become completely independent in about 18 months time. The flying site at Becici has been flown for many years by eastern European pilots but Robin Brown was probably the first UK pilot there, discovering the site during his winter tour of Eastern Europe.
As a holiday destination it has many
advantages. For paragliding it has a 2400ft top to bottom with a tarmac road
direct to take-off. Landing is on the beach or on the hotel lawn; however this
is not a coastal soaring site. The lift is thermic, so for low air time pilot’s
thermal flying practice was easy. Once height was lost it was easy to fly out
in smooth sea air and pilots could practice wingovers and tight 360s etc. Acro
queen Orla Dunn treated us to a spectacular flat spin, a surprise to us all,
including Orla; her scream clearly audible on the beach several hundred feet
below.
Serious XC flying is
possible from this site but seemed, from my limited XC experience that careful
planning is needed due to the terrain over the back. Hugo Makin achieved the
best flight buzzing off northwards towards Tivat never below 4500ft then
returning after 25km to land on the spot, on the beach. Some days a light back
wind blew, which converged with the anabatic flow and although a bit lumpy,
provided loads of lift over the beach. This convergence provided several pilots
with a height gain of 3,000ft above the beach, a big surprise and bonus when
you thought you were on your way to the deck…Once again Hugo showed off and
landed on the posh beach of sveti Stefan to the south.
Others made tentative out and returns, but I think after a few more trips some good XC flying will be made from Becici. The current XC record we think is 35km by a Slovenian pilot.
This holiday was an organized by Airtopia, so it was CFI Robin and instructor
Hugo on radios for the three guy's still under training, and also acting as
club coaches for the low air timers. I was the driver but still managed loads
of flying every day. In fact we flew for
15 of the 17days we were there.
For non-flyers this is as
good as it gets. Most flying holidays are a disaster for partners who don’t fly
but this is a beautiful resort with nice hotels. Budva is in the same bay as
Becici, and is a busy resort with beach, bars and restaurants. A noddy train
takes tourists along the coastline; pedalos, Jet Skis and water skiing are also
available. Pilots land on the beach so little reunions happen all day!
Montenegro currency is
the Euro and almost everything is cheap except minibus hire which is so
expensive we drove the Airtopia minibus through Europe for transport and for
transfers from the airport.
This is a story in it's
self. Robin, Hugo and me drove together for 45hrs and never had a cross
word! One drove, one slept and one read
the map. Robin was best at driving Hugo map reading, sleeping was my special
skill.
In Becici two Montenegro
guys fly tandems for the tourists, price wise a little out of reach for local
people.Robin did his bit for English Montenegro relations by taking a member of
the hotel staff up on his tandem each day. Strangely the first to fly were most
attractive young ladies and by the end of week two, he had the night porter
strapped on the front!
One flight Robin forgot his vario; luckily the young lady on the front had natural flying ability. She squealed when in rising air, giggled on a glide, and was silent when going down.
One
of the local tandem pilots wore knee and elbow pads, but no helmets so I did my
usual, “not shy to say something” but
apparently “he never lands on his head, so it would be a waste of money”.
On the last Sunday when everyone had
gone home the three of us wanted one last flight. We set off to take off, but
an hour earlier I had been stung by a hornet. On the way up I turned into a
blind strawberry. Robin and Hugo thought I was going to die, so decided it
wasn’t worth abandoning a decent flying opportunity. Then it looked like I may
survive so they reluctantly took me to hospital where I got a jab in the ass
that was as painful as the hornet sting.
We found the people of
Montenegro very friendly it was an absolute pleasure to have such nice people
around; the waiter in our favourite restaurant kindly refereed our knockout
Buckaroo competition. Amazingly buckaroo is not as popular as chess, although
similar (it has horses in both) but unfortunately, Dave Ogle was unable to
transfer his chess skills to buckaroo and let us down badly in the final.
Montenegro waiter winning by a shovel in the final.
We met a few Serbian
pilots in Becici all of them from the EOL club in Serbia and we were invited to
visit on our way home so we packed up and drove 10 hours to Kraljevo arriving
on the Monday evening. Our Serbian friends turned out to meet us. The next day
the entire EOL club took the day off to take us flying meeting at the EOL
clubhouse. We then drove to the mountains where we climbed into the clubs old
4x4; 15 people in the 4x4, 15 gliders in the trailer. Light thermic flying over
spectacular mountains, very remote. Hugo shouted at me for going the wrong way
in MY thermal when everyone knows I turn right when thermaling.
As the thermals died in the evening we all
squeezed into a tight landing spot.
The fantastic guys from EOL got the Serbian Jamie Oliver doing a BBQ and beer for us. We just left 6000 quid’s worth of kit at the side of the road to be picked up later by our friends.
Holidays that end
on a high note are best. To meet so many friendly generous kind people, and a
great day's flying topped off with a BBQ, I thought I had died from the
hornet’s sting and gone to heaven.
We said goodbye and
promised to return. Sadly the bad roads had ruined the shock absorbers on the
minibus so we spent the next few days inside a mad kangaroo. This made me sleep
like a dog, and somewhat amusingly made Robin as sick as a dog.
I will return to
Montenegro and to Serbia; both having huge potential. Robin is also in the
process of buying a property in Montenegro and also hopefully buying a bit of
mountain to make a better take off… watch this space.
Howard Woodward
Historical Pictures (one day)Pics by Diane Bevan 
Tony Lauricella at The Shrine on Sunday…
Together with Jim Clewitt on his new Scandal…
FLYING DIARY
Thurs 5th There
were about 8 PGs on Frocester, wind OK but base only ~1000’ ato at midday with
lots of grey strato-cu and not much sun. Robin B and I scraped a short XC to
Tetbury. Back on the hill it looked a lot better later but the wind picked up
grounding everyone. TC
Mon 9th Blowing
NW 10mph on Selsley; about half-a-dozen out, cycling nicely with big black
clouds forming. Wound up to one with Rob Kerslake; it was cold dark and snowing
inside it at 4,500’. We landed about a mile apart near Malmesbury; got a lift
with a lad passing who’d just done a CPC, then a woman who’d flown at ParAvion
a few years ago took us back to Selsley before the rain came through. A grand
morning out! TC
Tues 10th Leckhampton NNE 12mph. Everyone and their
dog out; something to do with the fact that Alex C. flew 125k from here
yesterday. Big black lifty clouds again - cold at base 3,300asl, landed near
Badminton to thaw out. Watched another fly over at base, the swine. TC
Wed 11th Blinkin’
flip what a day! Arrived at midday to see gaggles already on their way over the
back. Ran up to T/O and hurled myself at the sky with a dozen others and
circled straight up to base, gliders everywhere. Everybody decided to play
“follow Alex Coltman” as he did the 125k on Monday. Alex went on a glide – quick
everyone follow Alex. Alex headed for Hereford, we all followed. Three landed.
Had a chat with Mick M who was on the deck watching the sky fill with gliders
and getting so wound up he was generating thermals for us. Look, Alex is flying
over Madeley, follow Alex everyone – aargh Alex has landed, run away, run away!
I headed for the danger area SW of Hereford where there was bound to be lift –
sure enough got a great climb to base again, just outside of the danger area!
Another three or so landed near Alex, Bryan did 40ish km, the rest headed for
Pandy except Howard who nearly got to Hay. We got to the Cat’s Back and were
joined by a Gin (Dave JH?) who someone said went with the first gaggle so
presumably had been soaring Pandy for a couple of hours! Wayne S took a dive
over the back and got sunk onto the top of the mountain behind, landing
backwards where we overflew him 5 minutes later. After a long walk back to
civilisation he got a lift all the way to Hereford station. I dropped off the
Bluff over Talgarth with the Gin and Mike C on a Vulcan. We all landed around
Talgarth at 60 – 70 km but at least 3 others were still going at a couple of
grand. On the way back there was nothing but paragliders going overhead, and
back at Kettle at 6pm they were all still skying out. Frank T got to Hereford
and wound off a couple of grand to land, getting picked up by a Malvern member
and taken back to T/O – lucky Frank! Dennis F got lost and flew round and round
both Hereford danger areas before giving up and landing. What a great day. TC
COMPETITIONS & MEETS
Go4it 2005
Rules
1.
UK flights only.
2. No infringement of airspace.
3. Must have Pilot rating or be under instruction from one on
the day.
4. Flights between 01/12/04 to 30/11/05.
5. Co-ordinates for T/O and landing required plus distance
from point to point in Kms as a check. Flights will be scored to nearest 100m.
6. Defined flights (BHPA rules) Coordinates for turn points
in addition. Double distance awarded provided 60% of flight outside ridge lift.
7. Stone's throw award for smallest flight submitted (or
known about) provided distance 5km or greater (previously 3 miles).
Name |
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
Total |
|
Bryan Hindle |
40.4 |
42.6(DL) |
85.4(FT) |
|
|
|
|
|
168.4 |
|
Tim Crow |
29.8(DL) |
15.8(DL) |
22.3(DL) |
31.6(DL) |
63.4(DL) |
|
|
|
162.9 |
|
Dave Jackson-Hobbs |
60.8 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
60.8 |
|
Dennis Ferneyhough |
40.4 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
40.4 |
|
Rob Davies |
20.4 |
8.7 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
29.1 |
|
Rich Sheppard |
24.3 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
24.3 |
|
Carolyn Dewdney |
16.0 |
|
|