Club News

A very busy weekend kicked off 2006 for the Isle of Man Paragliding Club.
On Saturday Bulgham Bay was flown for the 1st time.  Watty, Keith and Simon were off first.  It looked absolutely fantastic and I look forward to hearing  an account from them for this.  I took off a little later from the take off by the side of the road!  Straight up,  dead smooth and really spectacular.  Not for beginners this site as there is not much in the way of bottom landing…very scenic place to fly though with a little bit of cloud suck added for extra height , taking me to 100M ATO and an easy topish landing around the laxey headland area….the others got a lot higher.  Noel also had a go….

Continue reading Kick-off 2006

A chance conversation with Dan on the whisky run and the lack of a suitable car to get me onto Slieu Curn saw me on Glen Moor Wednesday 21st at about 2.30 pm with between 14-16 mph WNW.

What a great place to practise groundhandling – found it very tricky walking the glider through the rotor but learnt so much! First time off was not quite sharp enough with the right hand turn and missed the "elevator" to the cliff top, resulting in a very fast beach landing with the tide in.

Didn’t think I’d get off again after a knackering walk back and was enjoying the ground practice anyway – but managed to get to the edge again (after dumping the glider many times) and was off.

Did a beat to Glen Wyllin and back then headed back to Kirk Michael with some decent height above clifftop. Then headed off to Ballaugh. Thought about going back to Kirk Michael at Ballaugh beach but it was getting dark so landed nicely on beach as tide had gone out some.

Didn’t anticipate flying with the seagulls but perservence paid off.

Top tip Dan – thanks for the advice.

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

As 2005 draws to a close I thought I would write a few words to reflect how the year went for the club. 

Weather wise it was not a good year nationally or locally but the year started well with a good turn out on Ballaugh in January with very light conditions gradually building all day.  Goldie flew off to the north recording the first entry on the new XC league table…..he was to stay on top of this league for a lot longer than expected.  Namely due to the usual spring thermal patch of weather not showing up.   Personally I never got to cloudbase once this year and never saw a single para swarm thermalling above Snaifell either…very poor.

February’s parachute repack with Bill Morris went very well indeed,  cheers Bill.  I think everyone got something out of that and hope we can run it again in 2006.

Before we knew it we were all off to a wet Annecy for the annual trip…again the weather was not so good.  Nice trip though and it was good to see a couple of pilots doing the triangle around the lake.

On our return we found a very successful course being run in near perfect training conditions……We gained 7 new pilots with their own gear, ready to rock! Welcome Giles, Stephen, Ean, Chris, Karl, Marty and Northy.  We were also joined by the elusive Stu…..So quite a crop of new pilots, which should prove interesting next year.  By my reckoning we are up to 25 equipped and capable pilots on the Island now.  What that would look like on Staarvey is anyone’s guess.

Continue reading Review of 2005

At last a decent  flying day!
Its been really poor weather for weeks so yesterday morning had me checking ‘Who Where’ on the mobile to see The Swaleses on the road and Keith and Si on top of North Barrule.  Action stations….By the time I had hit the hill Keith and Si had headed off to Snaifell after making the grammar school.
Continue reading November Flying

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.