Tag Archives: Coombe Gibbet

Paragliding at Coombe Gibbet

Blasdale Home Posted on by

Rosemary and I were going down to Salisbury for the weekend, so we had decided to take the Friday off from work. Friday the wind was blowing from the North West, so this was an ideal time to try some flying at Coombe.

We arrived at around 1.30. There were some 30-40 paragliders and hang gliders around. I set up and launched very quickly, but had to do a slope landing as I was going down. I had missed the thermal cycle and everyone else was coming down.

I set up to launch again, and had a couple of bad attempts at launching. The wind from the termals was quite stong. I did learn a few tips on how to control the glider when it was upside down on the ground.

I waited around for a quieter phase, launched and had a 20 minute flight in front of the hill. It was quite rough, going from 8 ups to 4 downs. Rosemary said she saw many gliders with their wind tips folding.

I set up for a third flight, but soon went down. That was it for the day as we had to be in Salisbury for a meeting at 8.30

Paragliding at Combe Hill

Blasdale Home Posted on by

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

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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.