First flights as a qualified pilot.

Got picked up on Monday morning at 11am - I took a day off work just for the hell of it! Headed over the string and checked out the wind at Dereneneach. There was a north westerly so we decided to travel to Catacol, one of my favourite places on the island. Being a club pilot now, meant that Zabdi could stay on the ground and do ground handling with some other students. It's a shame because I miss her chat!! So it was just Maurice and I that went for a hike up one of the hills at Catacol. We had to fight our way through the bracken and up to a site just south of Catacol Bay called Am Badan, about 100m high. On the way up I even saw 2 deer bound past, but I was too slow with the camera. The take off site was quite steep and there were trees and power lines immediately below. The wind was a strong north westerly but there were plenty of seagulls soaring and they looked to be flying smoothly. The underwear stayed clean and I felt confident about going off.

First flying site at Catacol. The shingle beach was the landing site. The hill on the other opposite side of the bay is where we went for our second flight.

Again, like the previous day, I got hoovered about a bit the first couple of times I tried to reverse launch. Although the heather was quite deep and it caused me to trip over (that's my excuse anyway!). I should have been expecting to run forward as I brought up the wing because the wind was strong, I was trying too much to control it just with the brakes. On the third (or was it forth?) attempt I managed to get the glider up and I turned and flew out from the take off site. I gained some height straight away so the power lines and trees weren't a problem. I did 2 soaring beats but I flew too far forward and came out of the lift band earlier than I would have liked. At this point I turned and flew towards the landing site on Catacol beach.

This is a view of the hill from the opposite side of the bay.

It was really cool flying downwind. I followed the road beneath me, there was a car directly below and I managed to keep up with it - how cool! I think it was a shitty citreon saxo, so no surprise there! I flew over the beach where there were loads of seagulls. They all took off as I approached, it was an amazing sight from the air, it was just like a wildlife documentary. I then flew back over towards the road and did a couple of turns to lose height. I didn't want to end up in the water so I crabbed in to land and kept myself directly over the beach. I managed to touch down softly exactly were I was aiming. It was a shorter flight than I was hoping for but it was still immensley satisfying! Total flight time was about 10mins. Afterwards I packed up and waited for Maurice to come down, he was soaring about for quite a while and another glider appeared and joined him. I was quite content to sit on the beach. I ate an entire packet of jaffa cakes.

You can just make out Maurice and the other glider soaring about the hill. At this point I was sitting on the beach stuffing my face.

The wind had picked up after we landed so we hung about for a while to see if it would calm down. The wind seemed to be coming in waves, probably rolling off the Mull of Kintyre. There were definate calm spells and then windy spells. By looking out to sea it was clear to see if the wind coming in was strong or not. You could see the 'veins' on the water where the strong wind was, Maurice said this means it's 'borderline', also when white horses appear that indicates stronger wind.

After about an hour or so Maurice, myself and Carl the kiwi went to climb up the hill on the north side of Catacol. When we got up there the wind was too strong but I felt that it was flyable if it died down slightly. It was all about choosing the right time to take off. Because I'm qualified that means I can go first, Maurice was going to stay on the hill and guide Carl off so it was up to me to get out there and test it. My first reverse launch was a bit of a mess, but I managed to get it up and turn to take off, but just as I was a few inches off the ground I felt the wing collapse asymetrically. Surprisingly i didn't shit myself, I shifted my arse the other way and let the brakes go, I managed to get back down and kill the wing, but had a tumble backwards. The reason it happened was because I hadn't committed myself to taking off and running forward. I had let off one of the brakes too much, so one side of the wing overshot and collapsed. I wasn't too bothered by it because I felt it and delt with it (kind of) and I wasn't really trying to take off at that point.

Controlling the wing nicely - just before I arsed it up.

My second attempt was better though, once I had inflated I turned, controlled it and pushed forward until I left the hill. Suddenly I was up in the air and it was nice and smooth. I soared the brow of the hill for about 15 minutes doing many beats back and forward. I did feel the air become a bit bumpy when I flew a bit too far north round the hill so I kept my soaring beats a bit shorter just stayed at the front of the hill. I managed to get a good bit above the take off site. Having the whole hill to myself was awesome! The sense of freedom is just amazing!

Taking off from the north hill at Catacol.

Again though I think I flew too far forward and eventually came out of the lift band. I need to work at staying in the lift band when soaring. Instead of working back up I thought I'd stop being greedy and let Carl take off for his first big solo flight. I turned downwind and flew up the valley. The view up the valley is breathtaking and it was fun getting some good speed downwind! I flew down to a big empty field, lost height and landed in the centre. There was a nice smooth headwind at the landing I almost descended vertically and touched down very softly. It was a great flight, I love being a club pilot!! It was worth taking the day off work!! Total flight time was about 25 minutes.

Soaring, looking west towards Cambletown. You can just make out the Claonaig ferry that crosses from Lochranza to Claonaig on the Mull of Kintyre, near Cambletown.

Me flying out to sea and out of the lift band.

Carl the kiwi came down and landed in the field beside me, he was totally buzzing from his flight. It's always great to see someone complete their first big solo flight. He did really well in the strong conditions too. Maurice took off and soared about for a while before the conditions picked up and he was came down to land on the beach. A great way to finish another brilliant weekend down on Arran.

Maurice landing on the beach at Catacol.

Club Pilot at last!!!!

The highland games dance on the Saturday night are usually a messy affair, and this year was no different. Zabdi phoned to wake me up about 12, thankfully it was raining in the morning so it gave me some extra time to recover. Zab and Maurice kindly came to pick us up from the house and we headed off in search of flyable conditions. There was a fairly strong north to westerly hitting the island so we headed off over the string and first stopped at Dereneneach. Conditions from the bottom looked good so we all hiked up the hill to check out conditions at the top. It was a fairly tough climb, not made any easier by the fact I was hung over, hadn't eaten much apart from some jaffa cakes and a banana, and I'd decided to quit smoking this week so I was getting a bit irritable.

I did find this guy on the way up the hill. He was clambering through the wet moss, and was kind enough to pose for a photograph.

When we got to the top the wind had picked up and was coming in more from the north. I got my stuff out and prepared and did a half inflation but really wasn't happy about it. I watched chris get dragged about for a while and saw Maurice go up. He found it quite bumpy, I think because there was strong north component in the wind there was rotor coming from off the hill on the other side of the valley. I said to Zabdi that the conditions failed my underwear test - that is - if you shit yourself, then don't fly. I was happy to take the long trek back down the hill.

Maurice flying at Dereneneach. The flat lands below him to the right are the Machrie moors, there are some really cool stone circles there left by druids or aliens or something.

After the long walk back down to the van, we were close to calling it a day. But we decided to go and check out a flying site at a place called 'Thundergay' - always a source of amusement - but it's actually pronounced 'Thunderguy'. When we got there we walked up and by the time I got to the top I was knackered. My energy levels were low and I wasn't really feeling up for it. There was a smooth north westerly hitting the hill and Maurice took off first, he went straight up and started enjoying himself. You could see that the air was nice and smooth so shortly after Chris took off and started soaring about too. So I got my stuff out and set up, I still wasn't feeling it, my head was somewhere else, and the first couple of times I did a reverse inflation I got hoovered backwards and landed face first in the heather. Then I had a tantrum, my irritation levels boiled over and I shouted "all i want is a f**king cigarette!!!!!!". At which point Maurice, who understands how it feels, came and gave me a nicorette tablet. And 5 minutes later I felt surprisingly better.

This is me moments after my tantrum. Look how pissed off I am!! Maurice gave me a nicorette tablet and a pep-talk.

A few minutes later I felt much better and was ready to give it a blast. I managed to eventually do a reverse launch and was picked up straight away. I immediately got some height and after being hovered about the heather all day it was really nice to be up in the lovely smooth air. The view from above Thunderguy is absolutely incredible. You can see for miles down the coast to the south and then to the north and behind to the east there are incredible mountains. It suddenly transformed a shitty day into an amazing one all in the space of a few minutes.

Me taking off at Thunderguy

I had only 2 top lands to do to get my club pilot's rating, and Thunderguy was the perfect place to do it. It's covered in heather and there was a big plateau just above the ridge that we were soaring. I did a few beats across the hill, then positioned myself to the south of the plateau ready to come in for a top landing on my slow beat. I actually wanted to do a few more soaring beats but the wind was fairly strong and I wasn't penetrating forwards at all. If I had tried to do another beat I risked getting blown back over the hill and getting caught up in all sorts of nastiness. So I decided to go for a top landing. At first I wasn't loosing any height at all, I thought about doing big ears but I wasn't comfortable about doing it so close to the ground. So I did some small sharp turns, just swinging from side to side but staying in the same place. It was fun! I lost the height easily and came into to do a nice smooth top landing. I made sure I didn't pull the brakes when I landed as that would risk being pulled back up, but I pull the back risers and killed the wing quickly. 1 top landing down, 1 to go!! Total flight time was about 15 minutes.

Soaring about Thunderguy.

Look how much height I got . The view from up there was amazing! The plateau that I did the top landing was just behind me, directly above that orange glider.

After landing nicely I didn't want to waste any time. I was full of confidence and decided to go straight back up. I did another reverse launch and got away. This time I didn't go straight up but initially lost some height. I think the wind had died down slightly so I had to really work at getting up into position to do a top landing. It took me quite a few soaring beats to eventually get up to where I needed to be. There were also another couple of gliders in the air so I had to be careful when turning. As soon as I got into position above the plateau the only thing that was going through my head was 'if I do a top landing I'm qualified!', so I decided that I wasn't going to hang about and risk the conditions changing I went straight down to the plateau. I lost height a lot easier the second time and I did a perfect top landing. I killed the wing using the back risers, and then celebrated!! I immediately texted everyone I knew, whether they cared or not, and felt very, very smug with myself. What a feeling!! A lot of hard work and effort but I'd finally got my club pilot's rating! I decided that I wasn't going to push my luck any further and so packed up and decided to walk down the hill. A couple of the guys flew down to the bottom landing site on the beach, but I didn't fancy the look of it. It's a narrow strip on the beach where you've got the sea on one side and a road with powerlines on the other side. Not much margin for error, and I was feeling too tired as it was. We went and had dinner in the Catacol Bay hotel. Brilliant! Total flight time of the second flight was about 15 minutes.

One of the other guys landing on the beach. Not sure who though.

No flying, but enjoyed the highland games.

Arrived on Arran the previous night, got the late boat down and managed to stay sensible and have an early night. I went along to meet Zab at the McAlpine at 11am. The Brodick Highland Games were on today, so there were loads of different pipe bands coming off the boat . One of the bands had also decided to meet at the McAlpine and warm up their bagpipes. What a racket!



Before we set off in search of wind, Zab wanted to do the tourist thing and watch the pipe bands march through Brodick to the games. Maurice and a few others decided to go and set up the rig to try out some new harnesses, so I also took the opportunity to check all the adjustments on my harness.

After we were done we headed off in search of flyable conditions. We headed over the string but it soon started to rain. It wasn't heavy but it was drizzle that wasn't moving anywhere fast. We eventually ended up in the Lagg hotel and stayed there for a couple of hours to see if it would clear up. It didn't, and so we decided to call it a day and headed back to Brodick. Of course, as soon as we got to Brodick the sun came out to tease us, but the cloud base was still very low. I went along to the highland games and drank beer for the rest of the afternoon.

Ok, this my attempt to educate the non-Scots about some of our traditional highland sports. This is called 'tossing the caber'. A caber is basically a tree trunk that the competitors have to run and throw. It must flip over 180 degrees to be valid and the competitors are judged on how far they throw it and how straight it goes.

This is the tug of war. 2 teams trying to pull the other one over the half way line.

This team were the eventual winners, from the Ormidale pub. They always win and I'm not surprised - check out the beer bellies! No they aren't wearing skirts!! - they're wearing kilts!!!

This is a fellow pilot, young Archie (on the right), being battered in the pillow fight. First person to fall off the log loses. He lost.

Kilmory Beach. Ground handling.

Went to Bennin again. The wind was too strong for any flights. So we went down to the beach at Kilmory, just 5 mins along the coast. Did lots of ground handling in a field just off the beach. The field was nice and flat, had no thistles or jaggy stuff and best of all - no cow shit! I spent a couple of hours bouncing about the place. I had lots of fun! I really got used to leaning backwards and loading the harness. After lunch however, the wind was too strong even for ground handling so we packed up went to Zabdi's house and drank tea.

Ground handling at Kilmory Beach

Cliff soaring at Bennin

Went over to Arran on friday night, took my routine picture of Goatfell from the ferry.

I got up on the Saturday and went and met Zab at the MacAlpine Hotel. We traveled down to Bennin to try for some top landings again. When we got there the wind was fairly dead, just like the previous week so instead of getting out my wing and doing some ground handling (like I should have done) I decided to be lazy and sit amongst the cow shit and wait for the wind to pick up. There was an air show over in Campbeltown and every now and then an aircraft flew over head. I'm no expert but one plane looked like a Spitfire or a Hurricane, or some sort of WWII plane. It was very graceful in the air, I wish they still made them!

At about 2 o'clock the wind picked up as Maurice had predicted. I was a bit slow to react because I'd been stuffing my face with strawberries and jaffa cakes. I did a reverse launch and flew off the cliff. Unfortunately I couldn't get into the seated position in my harness, but I managed to do about half a dozen beats infront of the cliff. I managed to stay in the lift band for a bit but wasn't high enough to come back and do a top landing. The wind had died down a bit and my back was getting sore, so I decided to bomb out and land at a grassy area down by the beach. All in all a bit of a scrappy flight, but at least I managed do my first bit of cliff soaring. I think I could have done better if I had got into my harness. The main thing I need to fix for next time is not to be so lazy! Get my shit organised earlier, do some ground handling, and be ready to fly as soon as the conditions are right. Total flight time was about 10 minutes.

Bennan Head. Side landing and sleeping.

I think I'm getting too old for the Arran social scene, my body just can't keep up these days! On sunday morning I was feeling a bit rough. I met up with flying fever and we drove down to the south of the Island to Bennan Head. It was a really nice big round hill that was perfect for practicing top landings. When we arrived there was a good south wind, but shortly after it died right down. There I did one 'flight' if i can call it that, it involved a long, long run down the hill got a few feet off the ground then did a very small turn and then landed running, it partially qualified as a side landing but I would have preferred something bigger.

It was good to see Brendan back on his feet.

We hung about for a couple of hours to see if the conditions would pick up, but there was a warm front coming in and combined with the high pressure it made the sky very hazey and the air had a lot of sink. It was still a nice day though with a great view out to Pladda and the Ailsa Craig. I took the opportunity to catch up with some sleep, although had to pick my spot carefully as there was a lot of cow shit about.

Hanging about waiting for wind. That's the Ailsa Craig in the background, an old volcanic plug. Thousands of seagulls seagulls live there, each day they all fly off, find my car, crap, then return home.

Back on Arran, reverse launches and top landing.

There was a nice bit of high pressure sitting on Arran this weekend. The sky was blue and Arran was looking good. I got the 9.45 am ferry over where I bumped into a couple of the guys from holiday in Bulgaria. We met Zab, Maurice and Trevor outside the McAlpine hotel in Brodick, the Bulgarian gang were all there! (apart from 1 or 2).

Sky above Goat Fell at about 11am.

We drove over towards Shiskine and stopped by the farm at Dereneneach. We got out and did a bit of ground handling for a couple of hours. We had a nice smooth lamina wind coming from the south west. It makes such a difference to ground handling! In Bulgaria where there was lot of thermic activity the wind was quite gusty and changed direction, but here it was smooth and constant - it made ground handling a pleasure. I had just agreed to purchase the yellow ozone atom from Zab and now that it was my wing I was suddenly very protective of it. So when it deflated and then skidded across a big cow shit I wasn't too happy!

After we had lunch we went further up the valley and climbed up a hill called An Tunna. It was 361 metres high and I remembered what paragliding in Arran was all about! We had to trek across a swampy moor then hike up a steep slope, how i missed the chairlift in Bulgaria! The hill itself is in the centre of a valley looking west towards Shiskine and there was a nice smooth wind being sucked up the valley hitting the nose of the hill. The wind strength was a steady 12km/hour. The there was a little plateau half way up the hill and the plan was to launch from the top do a few soaring beats across the brow of the hill and then do a top landing on the plateau. I inflated my glider a few times to do a reverse launch, it was quite strong. One time it lifted me up backwards and Zab told me to just fly. So I flew out from the hill and did a few beats across the nose of the hill. There was a bit of lift and it gave me the opportunity to try crabbing. I was doing figure of 8's above the plateau and it took ages to come down. I drifted further forward than I had intended to so didn't have much of the plateau left to land on. As I came across the plateau to do my top landing I was a bit fast so used my bump-air to help land. It was more of a side-ways-arse landing than a proper top landing, but it was still a touchdown! Total flight time was about 8 minutes.

Climbing up An Tunna, where's the chairlift?

I decided to climb back up and try again. It was bloody tiring! And there were millions of clegs and flies all trying to eat me. I got back up and did a much more controlled reverse launch, although when i turned to run fowards I lost me footing a little and ended up running along on my knees for a bit before taking off, all i heard on the radio was laughing from Zab. I was still quite impressed with how I had managed to control of it even if i was on my knees! I flew out and did a few beats. The wind strength had died down a bit as it was about 4.30pm and it was a bit cooler so there was less air being sucked up the valley. I did figure of 8's above the plateau again but as i came closer to the ground my ground speed was too fast because there was less headwind. I had also drifted too far forward again so I decided not to risk it and flew down to the bottom of the hill. I had a nice landing and was greeted my millions of clegs. It was a really enjoyable flight, it was great to be back in the air above Arran! I was total knackered though! Total flight time was about 10 minutes.

Nice reverse launch!

The end of my Bulgarian experience.

After a long drive the previous night we got up early to hopefully get some top landing done in Varna. We went to the site, which had a nice open hill in facing the sea. We ground handled for a while while we waited for the sea breeze to kick in. It was another roasting day! After about an hour or so it looked good for us to walk up the hill to try some top landings, but a thunder cloud moved in a the rain started. Actually I was kind of relieved as I had been feeling a bit rough. I think I had eaten something a bit dodgy and had been out in the sun too long and was more than happy just to chill out in the shade.

We decided to get in the van an go to some other sites and have a look around. We went to an old historical site, I MUST get the name! It was a big rock that stuck out into the sea that had an old fortress on it. I think it was once the home of Alexander, but my history sucks so I could be wrong. Nicky considered doing some cliff soaring there, but again, I thought he was nuts! There were power lines only a few meters back from the take off/landing site. He says the conditions were 'survivable'!

But we eventually drove to another site on the coast where Nicky and Zab did do some cliff soaring. I went and explored the coast and did a bit of rockclimbing. I even saw a small snake it was very cool!

Afterwards we went back to the hotel and prepared for the long trip home. I was very sad to think about leaving Bulgaria. It's a very beautiful country and I hope I'll be back some day. All the people on the trip were brilliant and it's an experience I'll never forget. I absolutely loved every minute of it. I'm back in the office now, stuck behind my computer screen - how depressing!! I've got a desk by the window so I can at least look at the sky, I just want to fly!! I've well and truly got the flying fever! Thanks to all the guys at Sky Nomads in Sopot, and to Zabdi and Maurice at Flying Fever for everything!

Nicky and Zabdi cliff soaring.

Last flight over Sopot

After lunch we got a lift back to the chairlift as the weather was still good enough to get one last flight in. Zabdi told us she was very proud of us and that this would be a free flight and she'd only butt in on the radio if we were doing something stupid. The time was about 4.30 so a lot of the thermals had died right down as it wasn't so hot. But there was still a southerly wind, so we quickly took off before the northerly wind took over. I took off from the mountain and there was a fair bit of lift I thermalled for a bit and gained some height. I flew off to the west and joined up with a couple of students in the air it was great fun, i was waving and shouting as we flew by each other, very cool. I even took some in flight footage, it's a bit wobbly though. Then once I'd lost to much height I decided to go and land in the larger landing site as the smaller landing site was a bit congested. There was a gentle east wind so I did figure of eights down wind then came into land. I managed the entire flight with no radio assistance and it was very enjoyable. Total flight time was 30 mins. What a great last day in Sopot! Tonight we are leaving to drive to Varna, where we'll hopefully get a day of ridge soaring done and where we can practice some top landings. We're leaving at midnight and driving for 5 hours - to avoid having to pay full price for a hotel there!

Me and my trusty Ozone Atom, taken by another student in the air!

That's me on the right!

We landed just in time, as cattle invaded the landing field shortly after we landed.

Laiz coming into land, is she or isn't she going to hit the tractor?!

First bit of cross country!

We went straight back up the chairlift to make the most of the good weather. When we got to the top the conditions were still good. Zabdi then pulled a bit of a fast one on us, she announced that we were going to have a competition. She said that if we wanted to have lunch we then we would have to fly to the restaurant on the other side of town! I think I crapped myself a wee bit when she said that.

The restaurant is beside a big lake about 5km from the chairlift. She pointed it out to us and there was a nice big field beside it, so at least landing would be no problem. The only problem is that in order to reach we had to cross over the town of Sopot. We would also have to fly east into a slight headwind. To manage this we would have to gain enough height by climbing a thermal or two.

The blue arrow is pointing to the landing field beside the lake. The restaurant is on the edge of the lake. That is the town of Sopot to the right of the arrow, a lot of buildings to fly over!

Chris took off first and did really well, he climbed a thermal straight away and almost got to cloudbase, he then made his way over to the restaurant with plenty of height to spare. I saw him then climb another thermal and was cruising about for about an hour.

The next guy that took off didn't do so well he never managed to get a thermal so ended up landing down by the chairlift. Timing the take off was important because by this time there were a lot of big cumulus formed and they were causing a lot of the valley to be in shade, not good for thermalling. So I waited quite a while before there was enough sun before taking off. My take off was a bit mess, I kind of drifted out to the right but then managed to swing it back and head out off the mountain.

There are 2 main ridges as you come off the take off site, and I decided to try and use the one on west, which is slightly flatter and more rounded. There was a wee bit of lift but it wasn't strong enough to gain any height from, I was descending down the mountain and was too low to make the flight to the restaurant. But I decided that I'd cross over to the east ridge to try my luck there before giving up and heading down to the landing site. I had to cross over the valley between the ridges where there was a lot of sink so by the time I got there I was only about 400 feet above the trees and no where near high enough to cross the town. Zabdi came on the radio I said I should fly down to the regular landing, but I wasn't beaten yet!!

I saw an exposed rocky cliff on the ridge that had the sun on it, a good recipe for a thermal. When I got there sure enough I felt a huge gust of warm air coming up. So I immediately pulled a hard right hand turn to try and catch the core, and catch it I did!! I was doing very steep turns to keep on the core, it was very similar to doing a spiral dive, with the same G-force but you go up the way instead of down. After a few minutes I had managed to gain so much height that I was way higher than the take off site. I could see over the back of the mountains behind the take off site which was quite spectacular, I was not far off from cloudbase and I think I could have made it, but I felt the thermal dying so I decided not to push my luck and risk losing any height so headed east towards the restaurant.

It was really rather cool, there was a about 4 or 5 paragliders all flying in the same direction over the town. I had even managed to climb higher than some of the more experienced pilots, it was very satisfying!! I reached the landing field with loads of height to spare and it had to do a lot of figure of 8 turns to lose height. I landed gently into the wind about 30 yards from the restaurant, what a way to make an entrance!!! Total flight time was about an hour. Awesome!!

Formation flying to the restaurant!

The restaurant by the lake, the landing field was just off to the right. Most satisfying lunch ever!

Last day in Sopot - first flight with speed bar

This is our last day of flying in Sopot, so everyone was up bright and early to go get some flying done. Luckily the shit flying conditions we had yesterday have passed away and we woke up to clear blue skies as an area of high pressure descended on Sopot.
We went up the chair lift and there was a nice southerly wind. So take off was no problem. I flew out from the mountain and there was some nice lift, I tried to catch a couple of thermals, and the first one I gained height and was about 200m above the take off site. Then I kind of lost some height and decided to head over to the landing field and do my exercise with the speed bar.

The speed bar is a bar at your feet which is connected by a line to the front risers, when you push the speed bar out it pulls the front risers down slightly and it decreases your angle of attack. Basically it means that you fly about 5mph faster than normally. But it has to be used cautiously as it will make the wing more unstable, so we only use it when we've got decent height. It was really easy to use and I did notice the groundspeed increase. After I had done that I flew to the small landing site and did a nice box landing with no assistance. Total flight time was about 25 minutes. A great first flight of the final day in Sopot.

The early sky promised a day of the gods!

Me losing height before landing.

Nice gentle landing!

Exam time!

Unfortunately is was too windy to fly today. My neck was still stiff though so it's probably a good thing I didn't fly. I got a massage this morning from Brendan, who is out here doing his tandem training. He fixed my back, excellent work Brendan, thank you so much!!

Zabdi gave us the option to sit the theory exam, I had done a bit of swatting, always was a bit of a swot. I sat the theory exam, got 93 percent, top of the class - result! Then went swimming in the mountain river to celebrate and generally lazed about.

Tomorrow is our last day in Sopot, we're going to Varna tomorrow night to do top landings. Only got a few more tasks to do before i get my club pilot's licence, but it's unlikely that i'll finish them all in Bulgaria. I'll probably have to do a couple more things down in arran.

chasing the wind

There was too much of a north wind at the main site today, so we drove for a couple of hours to another place far from Sopot. I don't know the name, but must find out!! We got to the first site, but I felt the wind was too strong for me, even though some others flew. To get to the intially intended landing site we would have to fly upwind into a fairly strong head wind. Some of the earlier pilots couldn't reach it, so landed in a large alternative landing feild, including Zabdi. I just wasn't getting the right vibe from it so I was happy to take the van down with a couple of others that didn't fancy it. It was a cool drive down the mountain, there was a beautiful small village perched on top of a ridge. When we got to the bottom everyone had landed safely and were packed away. We went to the intial landing site and had a picnic before moving on.

How many gliders can a moscovich carry? Quite a few!

The first take off site of the day

Small town on a ridge on the way back down.

Picnic!

And at the second site we drove to the wealthiest small town I'd seen in Bulgaria - must get the name!!! Some of the houses looked very affluent. We had a fair hike up to a first potential launch site over looking the posh town. The wind was coming strongly across the hill though and was not suitable for take off.

Assessing the second potential take off site. Notice how the cumulus clouds in the background are in a line, Nicky says that this is ideal for cross country as you can easily hop from one to another and cover a lot of distance.

Looking over the posh town.

We then walked even further to another potential launching site, it overlooked a quarry and intially the wind seemed more favourable. But there was a big dark cloud approaching and it didn't look too appealing. That wasn't to stop the bold Nicky though and another local pilot from going up and having a soaring flight. The wind got stronger though and they quickly turned around a flew down to the landing site beside the posh town. We all grabbed our stuff and walked down. At least we got a jeep to carry our equipment though!

We then drove to a nice restaurant not far from the town and had a great meal, probably the best food we'd had in Bulgaria.

Third take off site over a quarry.

The stop off at a nice restaurant before heading back to Sopot.


We've just arrived back. I'm knackered and I'm going to bed. I managed to injure myself in my sleep last night, I woke up with a stiff neck. And it's been gradually getting stiffer all day, and it's really pissing me off! It probably didn't help lugging gliders up a hill!

I've landed in bushes and crashed into fences this holiday without getting a scratch and then I go to bed one night and hurt my back - typical!!

Busy skies, bumpy air and landed too short.

Went straight back up for a second flight. There was still a headwind at the launch site so take off was fine. There was a bit of rotor coming off one of the ridges just after take off so I just flew straight and stabilised when I needed too. I did a few turns but had to be very aware as the sky was busy and a lot of people were at similar heights. The air felt very thermic, the temperature was quite cool but the sun was rising so the thermals were quite strong in places because of the large contrast in air temperatures. I made my way down to the landing site, I had no fixed tasks other than to concentrate on my active flying and airmanship. I performed a series of figure of 8 turns on the upwind side of the landing site keeping a close eye on all the other gliders. However just as I was ready to turn into my final approach for landing, one of the other gliders hadn't seen me and was already making it's final approach into land. If I had turned to land then there was a risk of a collision so I decided to extend my final s turn to allow the other glider to land first then I tried to come in behind it. However that extra wait combined with some heavy sink lost me a lot of height and I ended up landing very early and going through a couple of bushes, I wasn't injured at all and gathered my stuff and went to analyse what went wrong. The other pilot had a dead radio and hadn't seen me, and zabdi said I did the right thing because I took evasive maneuvers to avoid a potential collision, even if that meant landing in a tree! She said if that situation happened again I could have just kept flying further forward and land further up the landing site instead of doing a longer turn, but it was good experience and I'll certainly learn from it. Total flight time was 40 miutes.
This afternoon the skies were too strong for flying so we did a couple of hours theory and watched some videos showing how to get out of various stalls and spins. Thanks to Markus for letting us invade his house!

First asymmetrical collapse

This morning we went up the chair lift. The weather was good but the temperature is still not as hot as it was a few days ago, I think we're still getting the remains of the occluded front that past over the last couple of days. There was a headwind at the take off site so I managed to take off ok. My task was to perform an asymmetrical collapse, which involves sharply pulling down the A risers to deflate half the wing. I flew out over the landing site and Christo told me to pull an asymmetrical on the radio. I weight shifted to the opposite direction and reached up as far as I could and grabbed the 3 a-riser lines, twisted my hand and pulled them down as far as I could. It wasn't as scary I as I thought it was going to be as these gliders are designed to fly with as little as 30% of the wind inflated. When the collapse happened the wing tries to turn in the direction of the collapse, that's why you weight shift and apply some brake on the opposite side to counter it and keep the glider flying straight. To recover I just let go and let the glider fly, stabilising slightly with the brakes. I did it a couple of times and managed fine. I then went down to land in the west, larger landing site. The wind was coming from the south west, but was very light. I did a full flare at the right moment and did a nice gentle landing about 10 yard from the van. The guys on the ground said that the asymmetrical collapse looked very dramatic, but it never really felt dangerous and I felt I had it in full control, and was happy with it. Christo said that I managed to collapse 60% of the wing, maybe a bit much for the first time, but it made me realise how well these things are designed to fly and it filled me with confidence. Asymmetrical collapses are very important to learn how to deal with as the can occur when you leave or enter a strong thermal where one side of the glider may be in rising air and the other side in sinking air. My Ozone Atom deals with it very well and I very safe flying it. I also practiced some pitch control. Total flight time was 25 minutes.

One of the younger pilots.

Ground handling

In the afternoon the North wind was too strong for the main site so we drove to a gentle hill just past the town of Karnare. We spent about an hour and a half doing some ground handling and practicing reverse launches. The wind was quite gusty so it was tricky to keep the wing balanced over head. At first we didn't hook in and just held the A and D risers to practice controlling the wing. Then I started to practice using the A and C risers to do the same thing but noticed a big difference. Pulling the C risers kills the wing quickly and it made life a lot easier when a strong gust of wind comes along. We got strapped into our harnesses after a while to hopefully try some full reverse launches. A reverse launch is when you strap into your harness then twist round to face the glider and pull one of the risers over your head. It means the risers are crossed as you face the wing. The idea is to step backwards and raise the glider above your head, control it using the brakes then untwist to face forward and launch. It is used if you are on a small take off site where you might only have a few steps to make a good take off, or the wind is quite strong. It's good because you can see the wing coming up and you have more control of it. You can kill it quickly if it's not rising up evenly. I managed to do it ok a couple of times but I was tired and getting a bit pissed off with the gusts of wind coming in different directions which makes it harder. We packed up and then all went for dinner in a tiny family run business in a small town up the road from Sopot. I think the restaurant was actually someone's house. One of the guys said it was like going for dinner in a council flat in Castlemilk, which wasn't too far from the truth!! But the restaurant was lovely and dinner was fantastic - apart from the tongue, I'm not too keen on that I couldn't help thinking its like kissing a cow! The other students from sky nomads were also there, about 20 of us in total and we had a really good laugh. I've just got back and I'm absolutely knackered, I'll sleep well tonight!

Dinner was great!

Proper big ears.

We went straight back up the chairlift and by this time the cloud base had risen to above the main launching site. There was still a nice head wind so take off was fine, I had adjusted my leg straps so getting into the seated position was much easier. I flew directly out from the mountain, tried to catch a bit of a thermal by doing a 360 but didn't gain any height. I then flew over to the landing field. There hadn't been much lift coming off the mountain but when I got over the flat land the air was quite buoyant. Nicky was on the radio on the ground guiding in a couple of new students that had arrived, so I tried to delay my descent my doing 2 slow wide circles over Sopot. It was really nice just to sit back and enjoy the view. My tasks were supposed to be big ears again and then asymmetric tucks but by the time Nicky had guided in the new students I had lost a fair bit of height, I only had enough height to perform some big ears which I managed to perform properly this time. You really notice the rate of descent change when the wing tips get tucked in, and it's much more sensitive when turning with weight shift. The wind direction had changed at the landing site to a north east direction so I had to make a different approach than usual. I lost height by doing a couple of 360s and then had a long approach run which landed me perfectly in the middle of the landing site. I was a harder landing as the field slopes slightly upwards from that direction, but with a good full flare I managed to run it off in a couple of steps. It was a really enjoyable flight, total flight time was 25 mins.

This is Nicky doing some big ears.

Lower take off site

Went up the chair lift this morning but the top take off site was covered in clouds with poor visibility. There is still an occluded front over Bulgaria so there had been rain last night and cloud base was low. It was even quite cold today and it was the first time I wore my hoody. We walked down the mountain path to another take off site about 100m below. The site was much smaller than the top site so it required a good launch. I managed to get away cleanly first time and flew out from the mountain, there was a bit of a head wind so that helped. I had some problems getting into the seated position in my harness, probably because my straps had adjusted the day before when everything got drenched. When I finally managed to adjust myself in the air there wasn't much height to play with. My task was to perform 'big ears' which involves pulling the furthest out line down to your side, one at a time, and this makes the wing tips tuck, making the wing look as though it has ears. The purpose of this is to make the glider descend quicker. I was quite tentative when doing it so I didn't really pull the lines far enough, it was more of a three quarters big ears. I did it about 3 or 4 times then Nicky radioed to me to do quick big ears which involves pulling both sides down quickly, I did that another 3 or 4 times. I had to perform a series of 90 degree turns with the big ears on using only weight shift and it's noticeable how the wing is more sensitive when not fully inflated. I came into land in the small landing field doing a box landing with an extra s turn. I landed nicely with a full flare. Nicky told me that my big ears had not been fully on and had not been symmetrical enough so I would have to do it again in my next flight. Total flight time 15 mins.

Poor visability at the top

Got drenched!!!

Today there is an occluded front passing over Sopot so there was no flying available, the cloudbase was very low. So we all bundled into a minivan and drove for about 2 hours to another site, about 150km south east. I don't know the name of it yet. It involved a bit of a good old fashioned hike to the top of quite a small hill. I got a wee top to bottom flight done, there was quite a lot of sink on the hill so I didn't gain much height, but over the flat fields at the bottom there was a bit of lift that slowed down my decent, I wasn't too high so I decided not to make too many big turns, I only did a small S turn, then decided to fly straight and make a longer approach run. I did a good landing, making sure I fully flared to come down softly. The total flight time was only a couple of minutes.
The scenery was stunning and was really out in the middle of nowhere, not some where tourists would ever go which was cool. When I was packing up a local boy appeared out of nowhere and I spoke to him for a bit although he had no idea what I was saying, I think he'd been quite impressed by the gliders though. When I was ready to walk back up a huge rain cloud came over and we got absolutely drenched, and it's still raining now. We all bundled back into the minivan and headed back to Sopot. We stopped off at a hot spring pool on the way back. It was really hot and felt good, we even had a beer and a cigarette while in the pool - I love Bulgaria! We're back in Sopot now drying off all our equipment, a wet glider packed away could start to rot - not good!

The boy who appeared from nowhere.
Natural hot pool, and not because I pissed in it.

No third flight.

After lunch, about 4 o'clock, we went back up the chair lift to try and get a third flight in. Unfortunately when we got there the conditions had changed and there was a north wind coming from over the hill. We hung about waiting for about an hour to see if the conditions would change but we decided to call it quits and caught the last chair lift back down. Oh well, it meant that I got to watch some of the football! I saw Engerland bottle it in their penalty shoot out and then tonight we went to watch Brazil play France. Another one of Zabdi's students is from Brazil and she was fairly gutted when they lost, I told her to never mind things could be worse - she could come from Scotland!

Looking pissed off!

First spiral dive!

We went up the chair lift again as soon as everyone had packed up after the first flight. The conditions were similar at the top, although the temperature had risen so the cloud base had risen to a higher level above the launch site. This time when we got off the chair lift there were 3 horses running about our launching site! I dunno if they were wild as one had a bit of a rope around him, but they seemed to be just wandering free.



We went up the slope and laid out our stuff. Zabdi then told us that this exercise was to be spiral dives! I was a bit shocked and I think I crapped myself a bit. A spiral dive is when you start to turn 360 degrees but you gradually increase the brake until you go into a spiral, the wing stays in the centre and points down and you swing round the outside. It's a very important thing to learn as it is the quickest way to safely descend, in case you get caught under a thunder cloud for example.



The sky was fairly busy but most of the pilots in the air were concentrated on a single thermal. I managed to take off cleanly and headed out on a south east direction to avoid the traffic, I tried to catch a bit of a thermal and did one 360 to gain a bit of height, but I don't think I gained much. Then when I was over the landing field and in smooth air I started my spiral. At first it was just like doing a 360, but I had to shift my weight a bit further over and I gradually increased my right brake. The noise of the wind suddenly changes as you swing out and hit about 2-3 G's. I did 2 spirals then let up on the brakes to gently come out of it. The wing then shoots forward and you have to use the pitch control (pulling both brakes) to stop the wing from over shooting. Then I applied a little more brake on the direction I was spirally to keep turning that way as there is still a lot of energy going in that direction and it will mean you come out of it more smoothly. I managed to do it fairly well and it was exhilarating to say the least!!
After finishing the 2 spirals I approached the landing field, used figure of eight turns up wind and managed to land with no assistance from the ground. The only bad point was that I flared slightly too early when landing and I was leaning too far forward with my hands behind me. I had to quickly ease the brakes a bit and let the glider come back up slightly before flaring again. There was very little head wind on the landing site so I had to run off the landing, but I managed ok and remained on my feet. Total flight time was about 15 - 20 mins.

This is me coming into land in the large landing field after doing my spiral dives!

phew! nice landing in the small field

Went up the chairliftthis morning. there had been a heavy thunderstorm the night before, and the cloud base was below take off. there was a nice south south easterly headwind so take off was relatively straight forward. i flew straight out over the town of sopot, it was a nice view. i flew over a football pitch. my main objective was to have a good landing after yesterdays dodgy one. i did a box landing with an extra s turn to lose enough height. i came into my final approach and made sure i fully flared to stall the glider at the right height and i hand a nice 2 step landing, followed by some applause from the guys! really pleased with the flight and good for my confidence. i also made sure today that i've been flying with more brake on, and using opposite brake slightly on the turns. zab explained next time i should try crabbing before final approach. it involves using brake and weight to turn in one direction the weight shift in other direction to make the glider fly side ways.

Roasting!

There was still time for a third flight today and Zabdi gave us the option of whether to go up or not. After having such a good previous flight I decided not to push my luck and opted to just chill for the rest of the afternoon. I went for another did in the mountain river to cool down, it was so hot today that I've just been drenched in sweat all day. The river was great though and there were loads of really colourful beasties kicking about which kept me interested for quite a while, we also caught a glimpse of a water mammal of some sort going into the water. We weren't quite sure what it was maybe a vole or an otter or possibly a rat! Whatever it was it seamed to disappear. After that I walked back to the house, via a couple of cherry trees, when I got back I chatted to the guys briefly then went for a lie down, I hadn't even taken off my boots and I was knocked out for the count and had a good sleep until about 9pm, I definitely made the right decision not to go for another flight. I got up went for a bit of dinner and now I'm about to go back to bed, I'm a bit annoyed I slept through the Germany - Argentina match it sounds like it was a good game.

A colourful beastie. And it didn't even want to bite me, how considerate!

First bit of thermalling

I was pissed off from the previous flight's landing, I actually staved my thumb when I threw my helmet to the ground! So we went straight back up and the weather conditions were the still the same at the top. There was nice head wind from the south so taking off was no problem. I gained a bit of distance from hill and I had a bit of space and Nicky said on the radio that if I wanted to try and do a bit of thermalling I could. So I flew down over one of the ridges and felt a thermal. It feels like a warm gust of wind coming from below and I could immediately feel myself gaining height. We I felt the thermal I started circling round to the left, the sky was fairly busy, there were about a 7 or 8 other gliders in the air and also a handglider, so I had to constantly check my airspace. "Look, lean, turn, look, lean, turn" is what Zabdi has drilled into our heads! I managed to gain a bit of height, I looked back at the launching site and I was about 100 - 150m above it so I was quite chuffed. I think I could have managed to get higher, but there were a lot of gliders just up higher and I didn't want to get to close. I also got a feel for what it was like exiting a thermal, a thermal is a column of warm air rising with cooler falling air round the outside. But it doesn't go straight up it kind of drifts with the wind, in this case a south wind going back up the hill. When leaving the thermal I felt the glider pitch forward and accelerate, this is where the pitch control training I had done early came in handy, I just applied a bit of brake as it pitched forward to steady it out. I wasn't too good at staying inside the thermal as my turns were too steep and it caused me to lose height. I was turning too much on one side, pulling the brake and also weight shifting to the left, but I needed to also apply a bit of right brake to smooth out the turns. The thermal I was tracking was coming from a long ridge that runs right up to the top of the mountain, Zabdi says that the best way to find thermals is to imagine taking the surrounding hills, turning them upside down and dipping them in a big bowl of honey, if you can imagine where the honey would then drip from is most likely where you'll find the thermals, it works surprisingly well! There are other signs too to look for, such as birds of prey circling and rocky areas as they let off more heat. I did see a couple of big birds circling on a ridge to the west I would have like to have gone and joined them but it was time to go and land. Zabdi was already at the landing site, this time we were using the large landing field. She got me to do a few 360 turns then do some figure of 8 turns down wind of the landing site to lose height. There was another glider in near by so I had to keep a close eye on him. Downwind of the landing site there was a freshly ploughed field that was giving off a lot of lift so it took quite a while to come down. I got ready to come in to land from the west and as I made my final approach I was aiming for a dirt road that runs up the middle of the field. But as I was flying towards the field and I was no longer over the ploughed field there was not so much lift so I ended up coming down about 15m earlier than I was intending. Again I didn't flare the glider enough when landing so I was a bit fast, I should have managed to run it off ok, but the ground was a bit uneven and I ended up tripping over my own feet and fell on top of the ONLY thistle in the entire field, just my luck! But this was by far my best flight I've done and it lasted about 40 - 45 minutes. Even though I had a bit of a tumble at the end I was well happy with it.

Small landing field

We got up early this morning and headed over to the chairlift, now ok after being struck by lightning. The conditions were good up top, there was a gentle head wind coming from the south. I managed to take off first time relatively smoothly, it makes such a difference when there is a nice headwind. I flew out from the mountain to give myself some distance from the hills then tried doing some 360 turns then did some pendulum moves, that is turning one way then another to make the glider rock from side to side. At first I was too gentle on the brakes when turning so it didn't really work, but I managed to get a bit of a rhythm going and I managed swing from side to side quite nicely. I was supposed to do some 'big ears', which involves pulling one of the risers down on each side to make the wing tips tuck slightly. This is used to help get a faster descent rate, but by the time I had finished doing the pendulums it was time to approach the landing field. We were landing in the smaller landing field by the base of the chair lift. There was a southern wind so I flew to the east of the landing site and did some 360s to lose height. We had been instructed to do a 'box' landing, which involves losing height to the side of the landing field, then turning to fly downwind, then doing a 90 degree turn to fly cross wind then finally do another 90 degree turn to fly into the wind for the final approach. I managed the first couple of bits fine, but instead of flying cross wind I did more of a 180 degree turn and made my final approach too early. Because of this I over flew the landing site. I managed to get down ok but I was at the very end of the field and when I landed the glider flew over my head and came down on top of a small tree, very embarrassing! It took a good 20 mins to gently remove the glider from the tree and it involve a good bit of team work from all the guys. The reason the glider flew over my head was because I didn't flare the brakes hard enough when I landed to make the glider stall and fall down behind me. Oh well, nothing damaged apart from my pride! Maurice then had to spend 20 minutes checking all the glider's lines and cells for any damage, which I felt bad about because it was 37 degrees in the sun!! My confidence was shaken a little but I thought the best thing to overcome it was to get back up there and do another flight. So I did. Total flight time was about 20 minutes.

crabbit

went to the training hill, there was very little wind. had 2 flights ended up in the potato field both times. got a couple of nice weight shift turns though. i'm tired and grumpy, i just want a cup of tea and a jaffa cake.

cold dip and cherries

We went back up to the same launch site as this morning, but the north wind was too strong for any flying. so we went back to the chair lift, but it's still knackered. so a few of us took a stroll up the mountain path and went for a dip in the river. at first it was freezing but once we were in it felt really refreshing. there was a deepish rock pool with a waterfall which was lovely. i didn't have any shorts so i just stripped to my briefs, it was a scary sight! we then took the long route back to the house and found a few cherry trees on the way they were yummy! we've had dinner and are now going to the training hill to do some more practice on take offs and landings.

What a body!

Stealing cherries!I managed to squash more than I picked!

Karnare

I got woke up this morning about 5 by a huge thunder storm. it was quite spectacular. unfortunately it struck the chair lift so it's getting fixed today. We drove to a take off site 1600 feet just to the north of a town called Karnare - although i've also been told it's called Hristo Danovo, either way it's a town with a large gypsey population about 15 minute drive west of Sopot. The take off site was quite tricky, it was fairly narrow and there was a slight cross wind. quite a few folk had to abort there take offs. mine was a bit scrappy. i didn't stick to my line and i over compensated when trying to get back then my left side tucked, but i managed to straighten it just before my stop line and took off. zab said i also started turning too early once in the air. i flew over the town of Karnare, did a couple of 360s then turned to the landing site, approaching from the west as there was an east wind at the landing site. i worked on losing height using a fixed line perpendicular to the wind, but had to move closer in order to clear power lines. next time i need to make my line closer to the landing site. my landing was gentle. total flight time was about 15 mins. on landing we got mobbed by gypsy kids all looking for something, but they seemed nice. i managed to get some in flight footage, and we're currently on our way back up to fly again. hopefully i'll do a better launch.

The take off site.

Karnare from the air.


Me in flight!