Author: Dan Wood

Lovely night last night,  even if it was forcast for thunder.
Swales, Tony, Si and Chris (from Ausi) took off from a windless snaifell to find a suprising 18mph headwind from the south and lots of zero’s.  They all had very smooth bouyant flights.  So good in fact they all yomped up
again , joined by self and Jamie, for another go.   The wind was lighter but still it was pretty bouyant and as always a lovely flight.  Clouds of midgies in the lz soon had everyone packed away…..ug.

Julean also made a fly past on his yellow action.  Looked nice and high
and very impressive.  Must try that some time.

Looking good for tonight and the weekend.  Got a feeling we will get lots done.

Swales, Keith Si and Mike flew Slui Curn with limited success. There was maybe too much south in it. Then Myself, Tony , Bill and Stu flew Sartfell. Toni found some nice lift near the lz, but the rest of us bombed out…..some quite spectacularly!

Looking good for the rest of the week.

Good day on Sat, BBC seems the better forecast of late with all the others a bit pessimistic. Noel was first out on Slui Lewaige, staying up a bit but eventually succumbing to a dying breeze from the N.E. He then met up with myself, Gold, Keith, Si and Jamie and we all yomped up N.Barrule where Noel was first off again into a NW wind of about 10-12mph.

Continue reading Paragliding 11/06/05

Myself and Keith managed to get up Sartfell last night. We climbed up under quite a promising sky, with birds circling. I took off and had a quick soar about eventually slope landing to let Keith have a go. By this time however a large patch of cloud had come in killing the breeze and any hope of thermals. Keith flew and slope landed a little lower. We both then flew down to the bottom, encountering some very weak patches of lift over the newly burnt heather. Cannot help think these will work well with a bit of sun on them. Flew the whole time in just a tee shirt so I guess summers here now. Must hunt out the “lucky” shorts.

Forecast for the weekend looks good to very good…………..Sat NW 10 mph on BBC, nnw- n on xcweather.

See you soon.

Saturday dawned with what looked like a too strong NE…….Watty and Martin however had other ideas and were rewarded with a couple of hours on Slui Lewaige.  Later joined by Bill and Jamie. A little strong but very smooth.

Sunday saw Myself,Jamie, Noel, Goldie, Phillip, Keith, Simon and Watty on Slui Curn.  Later to be joined by Dave O. It was a little light and gusty with thermals coming through but not really enough to get above take off. Some of the gusts were quite severe, one gave me a nice dragging.  Everyone flew and everyone went down eventually.  Martin opted to fly the FRegain bowl……..

So a busy weekend, tonight has possibilities.  Weatherjack is getting excited about tomorrow….

Wonderful looking day yesterday (weatherjack 5 at one point), some of us had to work however. Later myself, Watty , Bill and Tony met up on Snaifell. Wind was thermic gusty from the N-NE. I had a quick flight and ended up slope landing lower down for an easy walk back up. Watty then took off on the new Mambo wing and stayed up, easily…great looking wing. As Watty was making it look very easy, myself and Bill launched into strong sink that had us searching for some lift at the southern end. Found something but not enough to get up and away and we both ended up landing on the slope, unable to make the landing field, which Watty seemed to make very easily on his new (very impressive) glider. Tony then took off, demonstrating big ears on the way down. We then hiked up again to find the wind blowing pure NE, Which is a nightmare on Snaifell……………and very difficult to get off on………..

So how good a day was it? Well Martin flew his Hang glider on Ballaugh. Taking off into an 8-12 mph NW breeze that would have been perfect for Paragliding he got to 3400 foot above take off! landing just north of Snaifell. Well done Martin, you lucky burger.

More of the same tonight, fingers crossed.

After a long break I got the call from Tony that Slui Roy was on.  Raced from work and straight up the hill,  put my bag down at the top, turned round and was greeted by complete white out……….then it started to rain!   Decided to wait it out,  even though there was no cover.  Tony then arrived and as if by magic the clouds parted to reveal brilliant sunshine and a light 8mph SSE.  Then Keith arrived.  We all took off and found weak zero’s that extended a very nice top to bottom.  So nice in fact that we yomped back up again for another go in very smooth air.  It was a little bit more lifty but we all eventually went down for a spot comp that Keith won – again.

Lovely evening,  it was raining within 2 hours….April eh!

Saturday is looking very good according to weatherjack and the new look xcweather 5day forcast.