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).
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.
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.
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!
posted by Neil @ 10:08 PM
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