Author: Martin Webb

Wed 26th April Big Bowl
WSW 12-17mph. Only 400′ on hill but then 750′ flying up downwind side of long cloud coming from Peel.  Looked like wave type cloud and felt like it but base was 200′ beneath top of Sartfell and I was sandwiched between it and higher ground. Funny feeling the wall closing in on you! But landed OK at Cronk-y-Voddy.

Friday 28th April Ballaugh
A bit west with small half useable thermals in average 11mph WNW. Didn’t get above 350′ in first hour so not pleasant. Then wind increased to 13-17mph giving 1100′
silkily smooth hands off stuff. Dan and two others came and went, I assumed to Slieu Curn, so went over to find they had gone to coast instead. I was low on Curn getting thrown around all over the place. Not getting up at all with the wind being much more NW here! So was surprised to be able to just get back to Ballaugh where it was just as rough low down, but once over 500′ sily smooth and maxed out at 1725’ATO. Then headed for Sky Hill where got only a few blips and landed a couple of hundred metres north of Grand Island Hotel in strong wind admiring the same lovely sea color that Jamie noted (tomorrow!) on his epic flight. Some very minor wispy wave looking clouds
Ballaugh way but proper "space ship" wave over Barrule.

Sat 29th
Meant to be the best day with light North then West forecast but with Dan reporting  a gale in Douglas! Orographic very slowly clearing from hilltops with no wind at all across north of island till after 1pm when it suddenly picked up from WNW but then the orographic sank lower and lower down Sl Curn so I canned it. But did you hear about that Jamie? He is becoming a real animal, I don’ think I would have the balls to fallover the back of Barrule from that low height!!

Gusty 20 plus NNW swinging WNW, too windy for Paragliding but good for Hang Gliding. Mainly 1000′ to 1500′ ATO in company at times of lovely Ravens. Loads of black bottomed clouds but only once got to cloud base at 2700′ ATO with great views of the Isle of Man. (3500′ AGL) and then chickened out because it felt too lifty! What a wimp. Could have gone anywhere but as usual recently too concerned about turbulence and more limited landing options away from the northern plain so just played around out front.

Spent most time over Ballaugh church and way out over the Curraghs. Went to Sandygate/ Jurby crossroads at 4km and back with 400′ to spare. Then to Slieu Curn and back but with lots height lost each way. Top land after 2 hours 45 mins. Not bad though for a cold March day. (Minus 7 degrees at base).

After landed noted Ravens reluctant to leave wall.  Very laid back or perhaps too windy? No of course it was that very dead sheep I had noted 50 yards the other side of the wall before I took off. Its a right mess what with the bloody snout and one eye out. Oh **** what do I do now, its still breathing. Better get a big stone to kill it, but how easy would that be. As I roll it over to see what other damage, it bloody well gets up and staggers off. This is getting worse and I haven’t even derigged yet. Eventually catch it put it in car, blood everywhere and deliver to Farmer Richard who thought it may well survive. Note: In future check all dead "looking" animals before fly.
Dont assume: check.

Tuesday 21st February
Strong gusty 20-25mph NE with some big Cu’s with snow showers heading to the Isle of Man from Cumbria. A bit near the knuckle but glad I did. Too strong to go anywhere and really just gale hanging, yet very smooth. A bit of cloud at times down onto North Barrule at 1100’ATO. Got to 1300’ATo in 20 minutes then 2300’ATO in an hour in amazing smooth gentle wave. But didn’t dare go downwind to Laxey? or Peel? due fear of rotor and dubious landing fields. So again headed into wind for Andreas the out North of Ramsey changed my mind to Jurby.. Nice big flat field there!! 7.2 miles cross wind.

Wednesday 22nd February
13 -18 just North of East. Yep got that wrong. Not nice. 20 minutes up to 700′ was plenty long enuff for top landing.

Sunday 26th February 
20NNE. Initially 800’ATO then 1320′  at  on Glen Duff with a bit of sleet and cloud. Then managed to slowly get back to Lewaige for a really nice smooth 1720′ ATO. Went back again to Glen Duff but only got 830′.  Then landed a bit north of Sulby.

I guess at my age it really is  about time I took Dans advice and swopped the Hang Glider for a Paraglider so I dont have to put up with all these Manx strong cold winds. Then again??

 

Sunday 19th February

A very variable 13-18mph ENE. A bit strong for paragliders like Jamie, Keith and Simon who saw me off. Nice float round out to Mooragh Prom and back with minimal 300 foot height loss. Max 1200′ Above Take Off. Thought I would try for Andreas Gliding Club.  A couple of miles short interesting to be heading at same height and directly towards a sailplane on top of the winch, then for us both to land at same time. Me 1 mile short at Bright Life at 4.4miles. Watty very kindly retrieved me. I found out that they didn’t notice my Hang Glider slightly infringing their airspace while having a coffee with them after. 

 Monday 20th. NNE 24. Max height on hill 1480′ ATO, lost 200′ to Sky Hill then got to 1880′ ATO at Glen Duff. (At long last a decent height gain here). Lost 700′ to Ballaugh only to gain a measly 100′ there. Landed at Windmill Road, The Cronk for a cross wind glide of 7.6 miles. 

26th Dec: Boxing day: Light NNE 10mph Slieu Lewaige. A bit light for me and a bit North. Simon and Jamie, followed by Ean were on N Barrule and just about soaring the NW side. Didn’t make any sense to me as the forecast and clouds were definitely NNE. But that was obviously where the best lift was. I hoped that by the time I had rigged the Atos on Sl Lewaige all would come right. In fact it was starting to blow up quite well and Jamie and Simon canned it. By the time  Jamie and Simon took off from Lewaige it had picked up a lot and although he looked good to me (After I returned to collect my car) at 450 feet out over the beach he apparently wound up landing backwards.

Before Simon and Jamie arrived I had a nice enuff wally around but got a bit bored with only 300 ft and when I flew over the Albert Tower decided to chance the ridge run as I thought with it being so far North I might get better lift past Sky Hill to Glen Duff. Wrong I sank all the way, albeit fairly slowly, and by Glen Duff was worried I wouldn’t get to Sulby flagpole. But just made it and had a lousy landing. But rewarded by nice cup of tea and cake from a lady spectator in Bungalow at the flagpole! I think its the first time I have ever achieved a cuppa after landing out. Things are defdinitely looking up.

 27th Dec: As usual midnite would have been the time to fly as by the morning it had switched tother side of NE to ENE about 16mph on take off. I was very glad to have Simon and Keiths help to see me off in slightly gusty take off conditions. Had a nice float around  in slightly choppy conditions but it was cold with eyes and nose running. (When I was rigging there were some classic wave clouds and I thought my luck might be in, but they were replaced by cumulous by the time I got off and never returned).

Mainly about 700ft but got  cloudbase at 1400ft on Hibernia and could have done the Laxey run but had family over on the beach so flew over Ramsey to show off. It didn’t look like a good day to do the Ballaugh run as too far East and got tired due to cold after a couple of hours and not flying very efficiently. As the wind picked up more after a couple of hours I wallied around to a grand or so in zeros out over Ramsey and decided to just relax and let it go where it would. Wound up following the Sulby River, Hardly a sensible route for lift in the middle of winter but possibly got some effect being downwind of Ramsey. I only lost slowly all the way to Sulby then getting lower concentrated on getting on to NE face Goby Volley (N end of Ballaugh) with best height. Arrived with 400ft but slightly dissapointed to get no more than 550ft after 10 minutes. Then it was just a slow plummet to land at my favorite field (with pond) at  corner of main road and the first Orrisdale turning. 

See you soon

Martin

After a month camping in darkest Forest of Dean (while working on my little cottage) glad to get back home. Only flew once while away on 9th November. Nice 90 minute flight on The Long Mynd in Shropshire. It had rained solid for two previous days, roads washed out leading to diversions, everything sodden, all the fields flooded. So obviously not much hope for significant lift. WRONG!! Some of the best lift I have ever had.

Continue reading Lonely Ploughman Martin Returns to the Island

NNW 16 Ballaugh. I wasn’t going to bother to write anything for such a mundane weekday but since everyone is hibranating in this unusually grim wet and windy October!

Thought it might be an OK day. Took off 2.30pm into quite rough early thermic activity (due to the late lifting of cloud/ previous days rain etc?) Not surprisingly unimpressive with no more than about 400 feet in bumpy conditions until after an hour or more. Then smoothed right out and really nice, but still not good by Ballaugh standards to only just over 600 feet. Landed at Orrisdale after just under 2 hours. By the time I got back to the top to collect car Watty had arrived and I wished I had top landed to be with him for a nice smooth solid 45 mins or so to about 500 feet, with him only landing due darkness after enjoying a glorious sunset from the air.

Martin

I had ruled out any flying at the weekend till first my wife said "Its flyable, come on" . Then Jamie called who I met at the gate. He had to go but I thought it worth a carry up anyway. 25mph, do able on Atos but didn’t want to risk take off in such strong wind after two Sundays ago groundlooping here. Fortunately Dan arrived to save the day and threw me off, but by that time it was blowing over 50km/hour!!!

Surprisingly little lift even though fairly square on and a nice sky, maybe I was still a little bit hung over? Also overcontrolling due to inexperience in expected fairly rough conditions. Athough it was 30mph on the deck, at 200 feet it was no more than 20mph. Maybe I will have to revise my 5mph "compression differential" to a bit more.

Only 250 feet and 20 mins. But what was good was that although a sinky patch put me down to 100 feet ATO when I decided to leave the hill and I expected to land at the Garage, I was still able to make my now usual nice big flat landing field at Orrisdale. From which Dan very kindly retrieved me.

Martin

Forecast to start light and pick up very strong SSE by mid day. Although it was probably a daft idea it looked like there might be a chance if I started early enuff but in the event only managed to get there for 10.30. I just honestly couldn’t understand why there was a windsock at the bottom until I got to the gate to be met by Jamie & Keith. Well I never. We agreed it was almost certainly too strong even for me- and getting stronger all the time. But then again, if they were game to get me up there it had to be worth looking at.

What a pair of Sherpas. Straight up they flew with the 5.5 metre, 40kg Atos- me huffing and puffing, straggling behind with my bits and pieces. What heroes. But I was fully aware that I could be entering a dangerous situation as I might feel obligated to fly, even if I thought it too much for me.

As feared a  gentle 28-32mph breeze met us on top. Oh well, Neville Almond mentioned he had flown the Atos V in 30mph…. But he has thousands of hours on sailplanes and hang gliders and hundreds of hours on the Atos!!

Anyway between the 3 of us we got it rigged in a record 35 minutes. Nice smooth take offand climb, but only to about 250 feet as pulling a fair bit of speed and still flying inefficiently due to lack of experience on it. With the forecast to get even stronger I opted for safety so had a better chance of getting out the mile or so to Simon and Keiths landing field 1.4 miles in front with a headwind and no lift at all til got to LZ then loads of lift over the field to be met by Simon who had been conned out by Keith!!!. Keith then very kindly retrieved me as well.

Only 20 minutes but good experience, very memorable and useful and I certainly would have chickened out without Keith and Jamie. Thanks again gents.

Martin

 

12 Sept:  A brilliant day had by all including many of our new birds. Covered to some extent by Simon. I understand Jamie kept up the quality with a very nice flight to Glen Duff. Phil went to west of Ballaugh Village. I really thought I wouldn’t fly as too light,but in the end it picked up a bit and had a nice hour up to 750 feet.

14 Sept: West 19mph nice 4pm flight on Sl Curn only 109m.

15 Sept: It had rained much of the day and I had ruled it out. But at 6pm the rain had stopped and it looked half flyable. Took off at 7pm from Sl Lewaige. Not much time to do anything but thought as NNE would try for Ballaugh. Left at 480 feet and landed Sulby flagpole.

16 Sept Friday 2pm: Cracking day due North. Lewaige possible but went on to Ballaugh thinking by the time I got rigged it may be OK. Took about 1.5 hours to rig but. HEY!! finally did it. SWcared rigid!!! Get it?" Yep I finally rigged the Atos plank with intent to commit aviation. NNW 15mph. It is just as they say, a strange beast with very sloppy rigging, but it does go up, at least on a brilliant day like this. Left at about 1200feet. 2800 feet somewhere before Snaefell. Landed after 1 hour at Billaboe Beg. 9 miles. My best so far.

See you all soon, Martin the hangy.