The Malvern Hang Gliding Club May 2003 http://malvern-hang.org.uk

May Meeting – Wednesday 14^th May

The May meeting will be held at the Brewers Arms, West Malvern (see maps below) on Wednesday 14^th May at 8.00pm. It’s at the West side of the Malverns on the B4232, post code WR14 4BQ.

All members are welcome and encouraged to attend

Hello everyone from your new Newsletter editor. I better make this a good one or I might suffer the wrath of our new chairman, ‘Don’ Ian ‘The Undertaker’ Bradley who looked particularly menacing at the last meeting in his black mafiosa suit and I wouldn’t want to wake up next to a horse’s head. There were whispers at the meeting about kneeling and kissing his ring. Well, what goes on between consenting adults is their business but quite frankly I think it’s a bit unhygienic.

For those that don’t know me already, I’m Tim Crow from Highnam, Gloucester, and I fly a blue/yellow Trekking Urraco paraglider (what?). OK it’s a few years old but seems to go OK. I started off hang gliding in 1982, but moved to the ‘dark side’ a few years ago, and have over 400hrs hang gliding and 200hrs paragliding experience (plus one or two XCs). I’d be grateful for any stories or other contributions anyone can make. Please email them direct to me at timcow007@hotmail.com as I’d like to keep the newsletter fresh and interesting rather than just repeating the email/bulletin board.

It’s amazing that the general public always perceive us as nutcases, but remember there’s a difference between being kinky and being a pervert; kinky is being tickled all over with a feather, pervert is when you use the whole chicken!

See you on the hill. TC

Welcome to 12 new members.

Mr David Armstrong, Mr Ian Clague, Mr Adam Coleman, Mr Tim Crow (top bloke!), Mr Colin Hizzey,

Mr Stuart Leonard, Mr Tom Mayne (we’ll have anyone obviously), Mr F Miller, Mr Ian Merrylees, Mr Neil Speed, Mr Mark Joslyn and Mr Ian Thompson.

Congratualtions To Carolyn Fitchie and Nigel (nearly a member) Dewdney from Cheltenham who got hitched at the weekend and were last seen heading off to Scotland with their paragliders. Looks like rain/gales all week so I hope they can think of something else to do.

Membership renewal.

I'm afraid it's that time of year again when you have to part company with your hard-earned cash and hand it over to the club. I know it's hard but the committee needs your money to maintain the lifestyle to which it has become accustomed.

There's good news and bad news, first the bad, the Annual Subscription has gone from £15 to £16. The good news is that we have decided to introduce a prompt payment discount of £2 if you pay before the end of May. So that means in the real terms the subs are going down. This has been possible because of the savings we are making a by having ‘Footlaunch’ on the website.

Payment can be made in several ways.

1 . Cash or cheque given to me at the next club meeting.

2 . By telephone banking, contact me for bank details. 01684 572723

3 . Standing order, contact me for form.

4. Pay cheque is sent to me made payable to M H G C

Bryan Hindle.

Bydand Gordon Terrace,

Malvern,

WR14 4 E R.

Flying Reports

W/c 7 April saw a succession of great days. Monday and Tuesday it was a light ESE with blue thermals. A few flopped over the back on Monday with distances 20-30kms, whilst on Tuesday James Davidson on HG did 80km but his brother Miles did 90km on PG. James came 4th in the XC league last year. On Wednesday 9^th it was more ENE with great streets and Richard Westgate did 70kms. On Thurs it went more N but someone got away from Selsley and almost made Bath. Saturday 12^th was a top day on Kettlesings with a light SE, cu’s at 5500’ and lots getting away, (see later report). Tues 15^th and Wed 16^th were blue, sunny and flyable and a few got away. Wed 23^rd was another exciting day (too exciting for some!) Nick C. flew a blinder to the coast – 83miles/132km!

Come on Chris, when is the on-line flying diary going to be up and running?

Things that come out of the blue and are red.

One Saturday towards the end of summer last year I was flying at the Beacon, and hoping to go cross country. I had launched and was looking for my first thermal. If I was to go it would have to be soon as there were high clouds coming in from the West, which would shutdown any thermals. But my luck was in, I got a good climb to about 300 metres above take-off. Also a cumulus cloud was starting to form over Great Malvern, so off I went. I connected with the lift and regained my height but only added another 50 metres. Searching around for more proved unproductive, so I turned to the East, and went on a glide towards Guarlford.

I had just cleared Great Malvern when I heard what I thought was the London train going through the town. Then out of the corner of my eye to the south-east I could see some swifts, but these swifts were in tight formation and coming straight for me, and growing in size. There were two groups, the first a group of five, followed by a group of four. Now rather than black dots the swifts were now red . You guessed it, it was the Red Arrows. I instinctively turned to avoid them, why? me travelling at 30mph how I thought I could outmanoeuvre the Red Arrows travelling at hundreds of miles an hour? I don't know. Before I had even turned 45 degrees they were passing in front of me. The main group must have only been about 100 metres in front of me and a single plane just above me. Just then my vario started to peep. I tried turning, but my mind was elsewhere, trying to decide if they had seen me and my life hadn't been in danger, or they hadn't and I was lucky to be alive. I eventually ended up on the ground.

Bryan Hindle

Sat 12^th April Weatherjack was giving the day a 4 star rating with light winds so it had to be worth a look out. On top of Kettlesings late morning the wind was very light and SE but it was still cuttingly cold. There were small puffy cu’s starting to pop in the bright blue sky as PGs started to arrive and unroll their wings. Bryan H and Chris S both had exploratory hops but the air wasn’t quite working so they side landed a little lower and had a sweaty drag back up to the top. It was cold enough to warrant extra clothing so I put on four pairs of gloves and two scarves – guaranteed to ensure I went down to the bottom and exploded in a cloud of steam! Small cu’s started arriving over the hill as about 8 pilots got ready to go, straining at the leash. Tom M launched into lightly buoyant air, Bryan took the cue and inflated so I pulled my wing up and we launched at the same time with me behind him. I broke right slightly, as Bryan and Tom went off to the left of T/O, and flew straight into nicely buoyant but light lift. The light wind meant I could bank it into tight 360s immediately and I held it in as the lift improved and settled into a nice climb. Tom and Bryan were also climbing in their own bits of lift, Bryan quickly re-centred on me and we got a good climb out to around 4,000’asl just behind T/O without much drift. Tom didn’t get up as quickly at first, but as it all petered out we were roughly at the same height. By this time there were hazy ragged cu’s pretty much everywhere and Bryan flew off to the West whilst Tom headed North. I remained decisively uncommitted then started to follow Bryan as the initial drift had been that way. After a minute Bryan did a U-turn and headed back so I did the same and we followed Tom. Amazingly the few seconds difference translated into thousands of feet in height as Tom quickly climbed to base under the next cloud whilst Bryan and I scrabbled around at less than a grand in 1’s and zeros directly beneath. Luckily we managed to climb a couple of grand in this before following Tom, who by now was again at base in the distance. We were tracking NW to NNW, and Bryan and I eventually got a decent climb and caught Tom near Bromyard. As the three of us circled together in a decent core I suddenly completely lost it and plummeted as Bryan and Tom wound it up. It was very frustrating, and after a fruitless search for the lift I reluctantly fled cross-wind to another decent looking bit of cloud and located lift. That was the last I saw of Tom and Bryan; visibility was very poor as the clouds were very hazy and ill-defined, but quite closely spaced. From that point I was flying alone, reaching cloudbase at 5,400’asl under a succession of grey cu’s as I tracked NNW, and losing 1,500’ or so on glides between. I crossed the A49 south of Ludlow getting low over the big aerials at Wooferton before climbing again over the ridge behind. By now I was pretty cold and fairly desperate to lose some water ballast so the concentration completely evaporated. I took a final glide along the A49 to Onibury, ignoring nicely lifting air over a big ploughed field to make a perfect landing in a grassy field by the road for 48km. Mike Riley then made the mistake of texting to see where I was so I quickly called him and begged a retrieve. At the time I thought Ludlow was Leominister, so we exchanged a few more puzzled calls until he finally found me. A friend in need is a pain in the arse as we all know. Then Bryan called from a few km away so I arranged to meet him at Leominister which was a bit confusing at first as he insisted on pronouncing all the letters. I heard a tale that someone from the Antipodes was driving around once asking for directions to Looger-Barooger. This caused a bit of head scratching until someone realised he was looking for Loughborough! Was that you as well Bryan?

We found out later that Tom had carried on to Shrewsbury for 70km, nice one. TC

Déjà-vu again.

If you put an infinite number of monkeys in front of an infinite number of typewriters some of them will skive off and go flying. On Wed 23^rd April there were definitely a lot of them at Kettlesings, lured out by Weatherjack forecasting good thermals and a 10mph E’ly. The first few launched at noon so the wind immediately went from 8 to 18+mph and the day started to look blown out. Bryan launched and got blown back over the top – excellent I thought, I’ll get good groundspeed if I can get off into a boomer (is that the right attitude Mr.Safety Officer?). Robin Brown launched on a Gradient Aspen with the speedbar stuck half on. I want to buy one – it didn’t twitch at all, unlike the pilot who flew out and down. There was certainly plenty of entertainment, if you like bloodsports. A few 360’d low over the top and immediately lost it. I heard it was an interesting ride to Colwall, lots of collapses and wild surges. I’m just glad I don’t do their laundry. Come on chaps, in-front = good,

behind = bad (and 4 grand above = excellent). I got off OK and stooged around in front, getting the occasional thermal but nothing solid enough to tempt me near the hill even though the cu’s were moving through nicely. Luckily after 30mins a solid climb with cloudbase written all over it took me over the back and I had a nice flight (pretty much as on the 12^th) until Shobdon airspace intervened and I made a vertical/slightly backwards touchdown at 47km. Hitching back was slow progress, although I got a good lift part of the way from ex-hangie Malvern member Dave Norton. He was on his way home after flying a Thruster 3-axis microlight all day, and reports that it’s nice to be in a cockpit wearing shorts and tee-shirt, visiting distant airfields for lunch rather than hanging around a windswept hill. A couple of lifts later and I was stuck at a quiet junction in the middle of no-where when Derek drove past on his way to collect his glider, gleefully reporting a 60km flight. Excellent navigational skills and ESP to find me there just to gloat. I gave up hitching and rang home for a lift before it got too dark to see.

TC

I must buy that new speed bar.

Got to Kettlesings on the morning of 23th April at about half past 10. Soon after more people arrive and we all

laid out our wings. It was already cycling through but not very strong, nothing to worry about. A few had

already launched, without any problems, when I decided it was my turn. I waited for a lull and brought my glider up, turned and off I went. "Oh bloody hell" I'm going up and backwards in a gust, I needed to put my speed-bar

on but unfortunately I've got one of those bars that is held in elastic loops that require you to let go of your

brakes, reach down, pull it out and locate it under your heel before you can apply speed.

It's been one of those things I've never been really satisfied with for the six years of my flying career and only

last week I was looking in Sky wings at the latest Gin speed-bar and thinking I must get one of those.

Anyway back to the scary bit. I'm now 10 or 15 metres behind the ridge but still at ridge height, no longer going back but still in a lot of danger. I was bobbling about in no-man's land out of the compression but not far enough back to be in rotor, I've once or twice seen other people in this situation and thought thank God I'm not there but here I was. It seemed to go on forever, not going forward but going back not going up and not going down, just

hovering behind the ridge. The only movement was down the ridge a little to where Nick Collins had just rigged his new rigid wing. I thought to myself "I want to get down but I better miss that" And just about then I settled

slowly to the ground, thank goodness for that. I must buy that new speed bar now.  Bryan.

(That’s two near-death stories from Bryan in one issue, no wonder he hasn't got much hair left!)

Four times this year I’ve watched pilots in life-threatening situations due to inoperable speedbars. I don’t know what it does to them but it scares the cr*p out of me. Take an old tip from the hangies and tie a loop of shock-cord/bungee/batten/knicker elastic to your bar and put your foot through it before take-off. Your bar will dangle just behind your leg and you can easily put your other foot on it. Scarily I was waiting to take off last week with my leg loops unfastened – usual story, I unfastened to make a quick adjustment to the back of my harness and didn’t get back in properly. Luckily Howard from Cheltenham noticed – thanks mate, actually I was just testing to see if you were awake, honest, but I owe you a pint anyway. The biggest cause of accidents will always be pilot error. The sooner someone designs a PC to go in a harness and fly the flippin’ thing the better, then I can stay safely on the ground.

TC

Crazy Sailplane There was a mid-air in the States recently between a sailplane and a hang glider sharing a thermal near Wallaby Ranch. HGs were practicing there for their World Team at the time, when a DG 303 sailplane joined a thermal with four or five hang glider pilots and got a bit too close. The HG was hit hard by the sailplane and was draped over the cockpit before sliding off and falling 2000’ before the pilot got the chute out.  Apparently the lines dropped out first and over the wires, and it took him a while to get everything sorted. Amazingly he wasn’t using a proper deployment bag!

Another HG in the air at the time had been "buzzed" very closely at least three times by the same sailplane pilot and left the thermal because he didn’t feel safe. Then he heard a sound like a shotgun blast and saw the hang glider draped over one wing of the sailplane and sliding off to the back before spinning down and the chute eventually popping out.

That reminds me of the sailplane buzzing the Malverns a few weeks ago when HGs were soaring. He really was being reckless, repeatedly beating up the ridge below the top while HGs were taking off and soaring. If you see a sailplane being flown like this then try and make a note of the letters/numbers on the tail fin and tell the British Gliding Association. They should be able to identify the pilot and hopefully give him a bollocking.

Go For It Table A great start to the season has seen a few XCs already and currently the table looks something like this. (Of course I did’t check anything, relying on word of mouth and pilots natural integrity and honesty to provide info.)

Pilot	Glider	Flight 1	Flight 2	Flight 3	Flight 4	Total
Tim Crow	Urraco	24.1 km	14.5 km	48.4km	46.7km	163.7km *
Derek Evans	Scandal	30ish km	59.3km			80ish km**
Bryan Hindle	Freex Frantic	50km	15km			65km
Frank Trunks	Laminar ‘Helium Special’	50hrs/week	30km			50hrs/week***

* bonus distance 10km for flying XC in totally blue conditions, plus 20km for getting away first and being really unlucky to deck it at Marcle under a classic sky stretching to the coast especially after leaving work despite being told by the boss that there was some really important work to do thus guaranteeing a crap annual report next week, and watching Kai Coleman go overhead on his way to 116km.

**docked 10km for gloating as he drove past me stuck hitching at the side of the road.

***honoury position for doing so much flying in one week, far above most people’s boredom threshold although we’ll probably regret not doing it when it rains all summer.

Class 5 standings

Pilot	Glider	Flight 1	Flight 2	Flight 3	Total
Nick Collins	Stratos	64km	132km		196km

Congratulations to Nick on dominating the Class 5 table, and commiserations also for languishing at the bottom of the table. In fact the committee decided he wasn’t allowed to compete at all, which was a bit tight really. Nick’s epic flight to the coast ending at 2 grand over the sea at Aberaeron after 6 hours flying time was followed by an equally epic retrieve by the sounds of it. Firstly it was getting late so he opted to stay B&B for the night before catching the train back the following day. A drive back to get the glider followed which was a round trip of some 5 hours. 

Derek’s Go For It Table

Malvern Hang-gliding Club "Go For It" League 2003
	PARAGLIDER
POSITION	NAME	1	2	3	4	5	6	TOTAL
1	Tim Crow	48.4	46.7	24.1	14.5			133.7
	FLEXWING HG
POSITION	NAME	1	2	3	4	5	6	TOTAL
1	Derek Evans	59.3	28.7					88.0
2	John Bevan	8.0						8.0
	RIGID HG
POSITION	NAME	1	2	3	4	5	6	TOTAL
1	Nick Collins	133.6	60.0					193.6

If you want to be in the official ‘Go For It’ table then email Derek details of your flight; date, T/O and Landing grid references, approx. distance etc.

(If you can’t to be bothered with all the messing around with retrieves etc. but would like to enjoy a prominent position in my table, simply bung me a wad of cash and tell me how far you would have liked to have flown. I’ll enter your flights in my table and you can enjoy seeing your name near the top, depending on how much you are prepared to pay me. TC)

My Kettlesings Accident 22^nd March by Dave Anthony

I had visited your site at Pinnacle hill for the first time the previous weekend and really enjoyed the site. As you know the weather was looking good for the next weekend although there was a fairly strong inversion. I set off from London early Saturday morning after a very long week of work. My girl friend commented before I left,'You look knackered, should you really be going?'.
’I'll be fine darling!’
Well that was not the case.
I arrived, had a coffee, took my time and got into the air. After flying for a hour I decided