Monday 5th March 2012

Mayobridge

The decision was made (by wiser men than me) to go to Mayobridge about 11:00am. I was picked up by Bertie and we headed out for over an hours drive. In transit we received a site report that told us the current conditions were too windy but with hopes that things will settle down shortly so we carried on to the site.

When we arrived Martin and Colin were just coming down the hill to greet us with news that the wind was about 20 mph (too fast for paragliders). Bertie had a new wing for Colin so Colin was keen to get his hands on his new toy and fly it.

New toy on the left

We took our kit and climbed to the top, which was about a 5 minute walk. Colin and Bertie busied their-selves with Colin's new wing while I stomped about and hoped.

During all this buffeting wind we were being overshadowed by dark clouds that seemed were at least partly responsible for the strong wind. Out in front of the hill we could see that that there were clouds dropping rain and heading our way so all the paragliders that were out of their bags got rapidly put away again. We stuck with it as we could see that there was a big chunk of blue sky behind the dark clouds.

Bertie, can I have a go yet?

After the clouds had passed things had calmed down to a point where Bertie got to test fly the wing before letting Colin at it. There were 10 minutes or so that the hill was soar-able, Colin and his new wing made the most of what little there was finally managing a slope landing. By the time I was ready to go the wind had dropped down to around 4mph. So it was a top to bottom for me. This first flight was handy to get my confidence levels up, plus I got to re-enforce the forward launching skills I had been working on. Colin followed me down to the bottom landing field and Bertie collected us in his car.

After climbing up the hill from the car park again to experience another cycle of gusts with threatening clouds then clear skies with no wind. By now there were 5 of us and as it was now looking like there would be no more soaring so making something of what was left of the day four of us took turns in doing a final top to bottom.

Bertie gave me the task of letting go of the controls and reaching up for the rear risers and using them along with weight shifting to turn and control the glider for a short while. The point of this task is to simulate the loss of a control during flight and giving you the confidence to still be able to fly the wing and land safely. As effective as it was to use this method I shall not be using it for landing unless I do not have a choice.

Bertie, the thoroughly decent chap that he is was left behind on the hill. He tidied up and carried down the left behind equipment then drove down to collect us.

This is the second time I have been to this site, but the first time I have flown it. Although it is a fair distance from me I am hoping that it wont be long until I am back to do some soaring.

Happily another task has been signed off for my CP qualification.