February |
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I had another good day at Firle today. I'd already been to the dyke and once again the wind was from the wrong direction so again I made the decision to try Firle. I had forgotten to take my sites guides with me so had to rely on my not very good memory to find my way there as I had only been there once before. I got there at around 2pm with hangliders having a good time in the air but the wind was too strong for me to launch. I sat down with a couple of pilots to parawait for the wind to die down but it was stubbornly refusing to do so. The other pilots eventually gave up and went to wait in the cars as the wind was gusting to over 20mph and consistantly at around 18mph. I sat on the hill for a while getting cold and thinking I was going to have to go very soon. I was tantalised with a couple of lulls in the wind but the wind gusted back up again. I eventually stood up and unzipped my harness to retrieve my bag from the back pocket and was greeted by another lull. I decided to sit it out for a while longer and the wind did drop but was still very strong and was around 14-18mph. After having sat around for 2 1/2 hours, I decided to go for it. I set up and could feel the wind tugging at the canopy and decided to pull the ears to inflate. I got the canopy up and tried to work my way towards the edge of the ridge. As I took the ears off I left the ground but the wind was pinning me back and I bunny hopped backwards and had to abort for fear of hitting the fence behind me and so landed again and brought the canopy back under control (just). I set up and once more pulled in the ears to inflate. I had moved along the hill a bit so I wouldn't be infront of such a sharp ridge to try to minimise the venturi effect. I inflated and the wind was really trying to pin me back. I had big ears on and I was leaning backwards to anchor myself to prevent me from being dragged backwards and I was holding my ground. I started to work my way towards the edge digging my heels into the soggy ground as hard as I could. At time I lay backward on the ground as the wind died a fraction but then as it picked up it lifted me back off the ground. I let the ears go but didn't attempt to shake them out straight away as I didn't want a sudden lift off. They gradually came out by themselves and as they did I was lifted a couple of feet from the ground. Once again the wind pinned me but this time I made sure I pitched down to give me a bit more speed. I did have to be careful of a fence in front of me though but it didn't give me any trouble. I literally inched my way forwards to the edge starting to gain height as I did so and pitching down as much as was safe. As I reached the edge I suddenly felt the lift working and got plenty of height. As I did so I managed to penetrate a bit more and got infront of the hill. I hung in the wind for a little while to settle myself down and to gain a little more height. Once I was in front of the hill I had no trouble flying and started to beat up and down the ridge. At that point I was the only floppy in the air but there were a couple of hangies up there for a while. About 20 mins later the paragliders started to emerge and get into the air and the wind was definately easing albeit only slightly. I was very impressed once more by the performance of my Lagon and I was at the top of the stack for most of the time and was higher than most of the gliders for pretty much all of the time. also, considering I am quite light on my canopy in marginal conditions, I could still gain penetration when I needed to but I was very careful not to go too far back to the hill. I stayed up as long as poss of course with no real problems and allowing the canopy to do it's merry dance above me which is quite a strange sensation as you are tempted to hold it tightly to keep it still but it didn't let me down and I pretty much just let it do it's own thing. I was able to stay up for 1 hour 10 mins and only came down because it was just about dark and I was frozen. I was the last to land apart from one chap who had a quick 5 min flight shortly after. I was therefore the first up last down once more and I was the only one that stayed up for the duration as the others had to land at various points. I have to say it feels great to be in that position for a change having been used to my old Sirroco in the past. So once again a great experience in my cage despite the frustrating start and I'm already looking forward to my next chance.
I sent my application in to join the Thames Valley Hang Gliding Club as I am looking to spend some time in the Oxford area and aim to get some flying in that area!
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