Today I left work early, and managed a few minutes paragliding at Dunstable. Managed a couple of top landings, but failed to recognise the dying lift in time and ended up doing one bottom landing.
Category Archives: Paragliding
Paragliding at Combe Hill
Today I went Paragliding at Combe Hill near to Newbury. The wind was not ideal because it was a North East wind. This site should easily take a North East wind, but for some reason it can be quite rough when blowing from that direction.
There were very few people there, probably because of the wind, the football and the competition in Wales. I had three flights, two short flights when the wind was light resulting in me doing a couple of side landings.
The final flight was 20 minutes, when there was plenty of lift. It was quite rough and I did not enjoy parts of the flight. The wing had a couple of small asymmetric tucks while I was flying. I bottom landed in the end to get out of the rough air.
I did not fly again, because the wind was stronger and everyone who flew after did not enjoy their flights much.
Paragliding Coombe Gibbet
The mobile phone started to text message me with wind warnings at Coombe Gibbet. Yes the wind was blowing from the North West, so it was a Coombe day. I dithered around all day wondering whether to go. Eventually I left work at 3.15, and arrived at Coombe at around 4.45, to find about 20 paragliders at the site.
There had been flying, but the wind had gone further round to the West and now it seemed unflyable to me. I did see some gliders do a little flight, but with the liklyhood of no thermals at the end of the day, and the wind not on the hill at all, I decided the trip had been a waste of time.
The moral.
Make you mind up early and go and fly, don’t wait till the end of the day.
Take note of the forcast, this did show the wind moving to the West at the end of the day. This made Dunstable flyable late on, so I should have gone there and not Coombe.
Visit to Thames Valley Paraglider sites
I met up with Richard Prout at junction 14 of the M4. We then toured most of the Thames Valley sites. I have never flown any, and this was a chance to see them, and get some information on what to watch out for on them.
We ended up on Tan, which is a site which was almost flyable today. But the wind was a bit on the strong side. It seemed also to be rising so we did not wait for an evening flight.
Really looking forward to flying Coombe hill, so am waiting for that Northerly day.
easter Paragliding
The sun is shining today. Hopefully it will still be good for the weekend. I have booked with a club coach of TVHGC for Saturday to see some the their paragliding sites. I hope it stays fine for then.
No News
Not alot has happened in the last few days. The weather has been either to windy for paragliding (the weekend), or during work time not the correct direction for the local Dunstable site.
Paragliding at Dunstable
Yesterday I managed to get off work in the afternoon to go paragliding. Unfortunatly the wind rose to above my skill level as I arrived. (Yes I should have gone in the morning, it was likley the wind would rise as the day went by). There were about 7 gliders at the site. Most of these stopped flying while I was there because of the stronger wind.
As I packed up at just before 5 pm, the wind eased of a bit. So I and another guy (John Cooper) went for a short fly before sunset. Managed to get in another 30 minutes of flying. This time I took off from the carpark, and not the bowl, so I have now flown over all the bushes etcetera I have always avoided in the past.
Finally I left top landing too late, and got dropped by the dieing wind. Landed at the bottom in the small area in the corner of the bowl.
Paragliding at Dunstable
Left work early (just after lunch), the wind was blowing 230 degrees, not ideal, but flyable for Dunstable Downs. It was about 8 mph at the bottom wind station.
Arrived at just past 2.30, there was one paraglider in the air (Bill). The wind was stronger than I expected. This was my first flight in 6 months, and all those previous ones had been made in nil wind. So take off was a bit of a mess. I think I take too long arranging the glider, by which time the wind gusts and drags me back into the bushes.
Anyway a bit of advice from Dave, and I was away with a pretty clean take off. I soared the ridge in the cloudy conditions and gained a hight of 120 feet. After 30 minutes I flew out from the ridge and bottom landed. While I was flying there was only Dave. Bill had left. It was great to be in the air again after such a long lay off.