Club News

Things are looking up- two flights over 1000 ft in my first week back. Forecasts and DOT Peel said SW but sky said WSW. Tookoff from Sl Curn South at  6.40pm beneath multiple layers of cloud, the lowest being about 500 feet ATO, rain shower out to west. Real masochist stuff but it was WSW 19mph. Bit choppy low down but wave smooth at 700 ft ATO. After half an hour crossed to spend most time on Froggy where it was lovely at 1240 ATO up front of the clouds. But cloud base was descending so had a quick hop across to sinky Sartfell, then back home to Curn. Surprised to get no rotor at all over back of Curn on way to Ballaugh where I thought I might just get a bit of lift at Bulrenny (immediatel south of Ballaugh takeoff). Only sink so shot off out front of Ballaugh towards Ramsey to land at Close Lake the old airfield between ST Judes and Ramsey. 7.5 miles and spitting with rain as I landed. Martin

Here’s just about everything you need to know about Summer 2007 Competition

Itinerary

It’ll be taking place on the weekend of the 30th June – 1st July 2007 with registration taking place on the eve of the event (Friday 29th June) at the Claremont Hotel, Loch Prom, Douglas.

Everyone is welcome, so bring your friends and family to enjoy the weekend too. The IoM PG and HG TT really does set out to be the friendliest comp on the only thermal generator in the Irish Sea!  The entry fee for the comp is £160 which includes ferry crossings from the UK or Ireland to the IOM, your accommodation on the island in a very posh hotel, transport around the IOM and of course entry to the comp.

Teams participanting in the BCC comp will hopefully join in this year too see below for more details.

Most of the visiting competitors will be arriving on the evening sailings from Heysham and Liverpool which get in at 17.45 and 21.30 and can expect a good Manx welcome at the bar from the MHPC drinking team.

Where

Depending on conditions, we’re planning on using Snaefell as the main take-off venue again. A bus will be leaving the comp HQ (Claremont) each morning around 9.30am ready for the first tram leaving the Bungalow about 10.30am.

There are other sites to consider if the weather is better suited elsewhere (particularly if have North-easterlies), so it would be great if we could have some volunteers to phone in weather reports from other sites such as Ramsey Slieu Lewaigue, Ballaugh and Glen Moore (coast).

Prizes

Yes, there are going to be plenty of prizes! Airways and Ozone are giving away a brand new lightweight paraglider as top prize, plus there’ll be runners up prizes and plenty of gifts from Cross Country magazine who’ve again agreed generous sponsorship.

Guests and celebs

Well it might not be Cannes, but I can today confirm, Jocky Sanderson will be walking down the red carpet at the Claremont! He will be helping to run the event and entertaining us throughout the weekend with briefings, lectures, film shows and words of wisdom. Seriously, whatever you do don’t miss Jocky. He’s a lot of things to a lot of pilots but quite simply, he’s the best!

Of course where would be without the hardest working pair in paragliding – Chris Dawes and Andrew Rastall from Airways-Airsports. For those who don’t know them, Chris and Andrew run one of the biggest flying schools in Britain. Chris is ex British XC champion, ex British team member and began his fledgling flying career on the Island under the unscrupulous gaze of two Manx club coaches. Andrew, he’s the brains of the operation! Seriously, Chris is Mr Enthusiasm, a great leader and a great talker and Andrew actually does what Chris talks about! Together they’re a great team and we’re really lucky to have them onboard again.

How much

Entry fee for all competitors is £30. Manx Club members only should make a cheque out to the Manx Hang Gliding Club and give it to the treasurer Phil Swales. Everyone else must go through Judy Arnold at Travel Services IoM Ltd.

It’s been suggested that there might be a rebate for Manx club members should you, the club, democratically (after greement with the treasurer) decide in favour. However before the event, we need everyone who is serious about entering to pay up so we can get the ball rolling. Although we have the promise of some fantastic support and sponsorship again this year, we do need entry fees (the more the merrier) to convince those sponsors and supporters (and particularly the IoM Tourist Board) that we are very serious about putting on a great event!

Hang gliding

There will hopefully be a hang gliding event if enough hang gliders enter. There’s a £60 deposit to be made by visiting competitors which is fully refundable in the event of cancellation, so if enough HGs pay the deposit, we’ll hire a removals van, transport them around the Island and store them for the evening. We need about twenty to make it worthwhile. Alternatively, if we get half a dozen we could perhaps use some volunteers (with roof racks) to transport the gliders and make it all work for them. We’ll see about it when we have some deposits in.

Requirements to fly and compete

We want everyone to come along, fly and have a good time. Competition pilots must be * BHPA members and at least CP rated with a minimum of 25 hours logged. I would ask that any novice pilots who wish to free-fly during the event, to do so under the guidance of their club coach or instructor before or after the competition window is open. Please, do not fly at the competition location during the competition. It may well be the case that a novice pilots competition will be run under the guidance of BHPA instructors alongside the main event as has been suggested by Chris and Andrew at Airways. If you feel that you don’t have the requirements as detailed above but would like to take-part anyway, let me know and we’ll sort something out for you. (*Members of other FAI recognised foreign national flying bodies may also compete if similarly qualified and insured.)

How’s it going so far?

So far we have about eight confirmed bookings. There have been a lot of enquiries through myself, Andrew Rastall and Judy Arnold. Andrew’s web site had over 200 hits the first day it went live! There seems to be a lot of interest from other clubs involved in the British Club Championships too. Airways are talking about bringing just about every pilot in their club (60 odd) on a free bus trip.

There’s a list of contact info below if you want to find out anything more or if you want to send someone else the info. Feel free to e-mail me if you have any questions or you think I’ve missed anything and especially if you think you can help with anything. Hey, it’s your comp! Let me know what you think.

All the best, Colin.

Colin Fargher tel 020 7193 9133 Manx mobile 413737 e-mail manxtt@mac.com

The Claremont Hotel
Isle of Man Steam Packet Ferry Company
Manx Hang Gliding and Paragliding Club

Flying Annecy 12th May 2007

Crossing from Let Dents to the Parmalan Ridge

more vids here

The day really started the wrong way for me: after soaring around on the northwest side of Snaefell I suddenly lost some height on the southern end and found it hard to make my way up again with 3-4 paragliders very close to me. I felt I could not move anywhere so I went straight towards the northern end, again losing further height. All off a sudden I had the hill very close to the right, no wind to shifting me up again and the tramlines even closer to the left!!! Touching the ground, I started running as fast as I could to take the pressure out of the wing. It went down on my right towards the hill. That was close… But then I was facing the next challenge: how to get up again? Packing up into the rucksack was not an option so I tried to groundhandle a bit while walking further up towed by the glider. When I had enough distance from the lines I waited for the wind to pick up and it was easy to get back to the top. Instead getting down now was not as easy as anticipated, because the wind was picking up again. I was dragged a few meters before I finally managed to get the wing down… What a debacle! Mr. Gravelpit was doing everything wrong he could possibly do wrong sofar…

Continue reading First Manx Paragliding XC of 2007

Seemed like it on Saturday.  Very light north westerly had Martin, Si and Keith and Watty on Ballaugh waiting for the cloud to lift.  They were then joined by Giles and The Swales brothers just as the cloud lifted. All were soaring about by the time I got there.  Light and very smooth with the occasional gentle thermal eeking us up above the clouds to 71m ato. Lots of top landing practice and everyone seemed to give each other plenty of space.  Great start to the new year.

Heard rumors of snow later in the week… maybe winter is not over yet.