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.