FOOTLAUNCH
November Meeting –Wednesday
12th November at the Plume
Safe T-Lines
Clouds
Suck
Weatherjack had been forecasting a 4 all week so you carefully arranged work to allow time off and it's a cracking day. The cu's are looking great, it's blowing 8-10mph smack on and soon you're airborne and hooked into a great one with base written all over it. The vario sings a solid tune and a few thousand feet later you're behind the hill with cloudbase looming. Fantastic - you're XC now enjoying the view and looking ahead across the gap to the next cloud as you climb. It's a big gap though, so maybe you'll see how far up into this cloud you can climb before setting off on glide, the extra height might make the difference and the GPS will stop you getting lost in the clag. Hang on a minute though and consider this - sailplane pilots have also been looking at Weatherjack and they have all skivved off for some flying as well. Do you know that they regularly climb well into cloud flying on instruments? So what happens when you meet 1/4 ton of pointy fiberglass travelling at 100mph in cloud? There's a big splat and that's the end of your flying. The sailplane pilot sees the blood all over the windscreen and thinks "Blimey, that was a big fly!" and carries on. Worth thinking about next time you're close to base.
Parachute Repack -
February
How long is it since you repacked your reserve? Do you know what the recommended interval is between repacks? If not, it’s probably a lot shorter than you might think. Get ready for the booming spring thermals and come along to the club chute repacking session in February, date/time/venue TBA.
Club Christmas Meal – Sat 13th December at the Plume. Spaces are limited so get your name down, deposits required at the next club meeting please. Free wine!
Weatherjack ceases
operation, shock horror!
If you’re familiar with Weatherjack’s excellent wind and thermal forecast page on the web at http://www.itadvice.co.uk/weatherjack/STARS.htm
then the thought of it stopping permanently probably brings a chill to your XC heart. If you haven’t used it and wonder why you miss the good days when sky-gods are racking up the miles, then perhaps you should start. It’s a free service relying on voluntary donations, and if you use it and like it then how about bunging him a few quid to ensure it continues. To this end the club have decided to send him a contribution of £50 – this certainly caused a lively debate at the last committee meeting! Opinions ranged from it being utterly miserly to extravagantly generous. Maybe the worry was that it would be taken from the £200 for wine at the club Xmas meal. Well you can’t please everyone all the time, but it’s unlikely to make much of a dent in the club’s funds. And don’t worry, as far as I know Weatherjack has just knocked off for the winter and will be back in time for the spring thermals.
Go 4 It
2003 Current Standings – well it
looks like this is pretty much it for XCs this year, and what a cracker it’s
been! The tables don’t fully reflect all the flights done by members for sure,
there’s a lot of good ones I know of which people haven’t bothered to enter
(Frank?). Still, the best, most talented and amazingly gifted pilot seems to
have come out on top (Oh, was that me?). A lot of first XCs and PBs have been
achieved and now a lot of pilots are gagging for next spring. If you haven’t
gone over the back yet then get your act together next year, buy a new airmap
and go for it – you’ve got nothing to lose except your sanity, job, wife,
house, car etc. etc. because once you’re hooked nothing else matters.
Paragliders Totals
Tim Crow 88.2 72.5 48.4 46.7 46.4 42.7 35.6 32.7 28.1 24.1 19.3 17
14.5 11.8 10.0 538.0km
Bryan Hindle 94.4 51.3 31.2 19.4 15.2 14.7 226.2km
Chris Smith 16.6 8.2 24.8km
Flexwings
Derek Evans 59.3 28.7 88.0km
John Bevan
8.0 8.0km
Rigids
Nick Collins 189.65 133.82 59.94 23.83 14.0 421.2km
Aeros Xtreme Hangliding Harness. As new. Would suit 6ft Medium build.
Please Email Frank on Sammi@Lawstroud.freeserve.co.ukOr Telephone 07775817845 or 01453 791479
Trekking Ritmo 41 XL 90-120
kg. Sail in excellent condition with new lines (fitted in 1999 but only
test flown for two hours since) ACPUL 12 A's. Would make a good paramotor wing
or 1st time stable learner wing.
I am the only owner and know it's been looked after from new, flies great
on a hill and winch launches easily (it's a really steady forgiving wing, I've
used it for years without a reserve)
Open to sensible offers telephone me and we can organise a test flight view
of the wing
Phil Cooper tel 07947
824370 email:PHILCOOPERALICE@aol.com
Freex Spear Large,
Blue 20 hours, DHV 2
Freex Spear Medium, Blue
70 hours, DHV 2
Offers invited on both.
Ian Clague 0771 472 0583
Harley Sirocco (Large, 92kg-120kg) Acpul 12A
rated, c/w harness; £250 ono
Dennis 07876 492406
AIRTOPIA
!
Trekking
Sunbeam very clean 95-110kg £875.00
Firebird
Ignition excellent low
airtime 75-95kg
£825.00
Nova
X Act Very Low
airtime 85-105kg £900.00
Nova
X Act plenty
life left 85-105kg £450.00
Nova
Xyon Large Good
105-125 kg
offers
Edel
Sabre xLarge Fair
100-120kg offers
Canopies
from Ozone, Gin, Gradient and Airwave, demo’s available, part exchange a
possibility!
Mobile 07973 844449
www.airtopia.com robin@airtopia.com
We
are very easy to find, just off junction 13 of the M5, check out the map on the
web site…..
Flying Diary
Fri 25th Oct
Hay Bluff NNW 8-10
Couldn't get away from work earlier so headed for Fochriw. Raining there so
rushed to Hay for 30mins floating around by myself in clear conditions. Landed
as getting dark (actually 'cos my hands were frozen, must be winter now!)
Chris
Sunday Oct 12th
Did the Malvern 'Ridge Run' in strong (34mph tops) South Easterly. Bit slow
coming off North Hill (even on the rocket Combat), and bit difficult to get
past Swinyard, but a most enjoyable flight, in reasonably smooth air. Other pilots
were a Brit from Le Poet (near Larange), Dave (floppy boy) Quinn, and Nev
Almond on a Solar Eclipse.
Regards, John.
Sat 11th Oct. Talybont, SSW 5
Mon 13th Oct. Kettle, ENE 10-15
Sat looked light and S so Talybont was the best bet. When got to top at 11
looked like it might be a good day, sunny with little Cus. Starting to cycle
through when the sun went in L Still had a couple of little flops for 10mins or
so and still managed to land on top. Then a nice TTB.
Mon looked a bit grey but went up to the Kettle after work. There was some in
the air when I drove towards the hill (Airtopia?) but they had all bottom
landed when I got to the top just after 5. Frank joined me and we debated why
they had all landed. Decided it was all OK so off we went, nice so zoomed up to
the Beacon. Frank had about an hour, me slightly less as I had to land at the
Beacon after getting low (Frank had his helium to keep him up!), then both flew
back to the Kettle for a slope land when it got a bit rough. Nice.
Chris
Sun 5th Oct. Selsley NW
Nice morning, the world and his wife vying for the little bit of air available
at the common. Got set up as Richard W got away. Took off into the gaggle and
went up and down with everyone else at arount 100ft ATO. Hugo seemed to get
stuff over the field way out in front of the trees so I pushed out there a
couple of times and finally managed to hook something good. Wound it up to
about 600ft ATO but had drifted way back. Figuring that it wasnb't good enought
to risk crossing the valley I left it to go back to the front. Wasn't
happening. Top landed with everyone else. Went back to the front where it was
fresher but gliders still out in front so took off into somewhat bouncy air.
Drifted back and landed not quite where I was intending, going slightly
backwards... That was it for the day as no sign of abatement. Still, nice for
october.
Nigel D.