| Date |
Site |
Pilots |
| 1-Nov-08 |
Bridgend |
Tommy B, Logan, Rob, Henny |
| |
Arrived at the top to find no wind, around midday
the thermals started and they where surprisingly good, after a short
period I found a really solid climb to base which was around 2500ft,
I should have left with this but the bigger hills behind were capped,
so I stayed in the area, the day was a good mix off thermals and
ridge soaring and even a wee bit convergence later on. |
| |
Tinto |
Dave T |
| |
Tinto suffered from too much overnight rain. It was
after 12 before the cloud cleared the hill and the ground remained
wet, so the thermals were very weak. What little met wind there
was, was NE so not a great day. We got some soaring in the Cleuch
later on, but by that time we were at cloudbase - but so was the
hill! |
| 2-Nov-08 |
Bridgend |
Tommy B, Logan, Henny |
| |
Arrived at the top to find a very light breeze from
the NE, the clouds were forming nicely and it looked good, it was
not long before the weak cycles started coming through, and everybody
was scratching about, but it never got any better than this and
as the early afternoon came it was dropping off fast, it got to
the point that I started to fly Logan’s glider. It was easy to stay
up now, I was only 45kg under the weight range, honest. We called
it when it dropped away to nothing around 2.30, and enjoyed the
fly down. |
| |
Cardon Hill |
Dave T, Naomi & 7 others |
| |
Given the more stable conditions 9 of us opted to
get as high as possible and walked up Cardon Hill. It was noticeably
warmer at the top than it had been in the valley - not a good sign,
but we had some fun choosing between silky smooth soaring in the
big bowl and playing in small punchy thermals on the S face. With
almost no met wind and the shadow climbing the hill rapidly, we
glided over to Chapelgill Hill, walked to the top and had a lovely
glide into the Glenholm valley. |
| |
Carsphairn |
Iain Wallace |
| |
I opted for Carsphairn which likes NE to SE. Unfortunately
it was NW. There was some thermic breeze coming up the hill that
I only had time to notice before it died completely. Wasn't there
early enough. |
| 3-Nov-08 |
Conic Hill |
Tom P |
| |
0-1mph trickle of a breeze from SE. Straight ttb. |
| |
Fly/Walk |
Ian Miskin, Brian & Dave T |
| |
Fly/Walk from south of Peebles to Megget Dam. It was
quite tough going with lots of snow on the tops but the ground wasn't
frozen, so it was a bit like training on sand dunes with wet feet.
However, some lovely views and some good long glides - one with
a few optimistic turns in a weak thermal. 20 km total with 6.5 km
flying. |
| 4-Nov-08 |
Tarmachan |
Gordon Mac, Sean Figgitt, Bob Matthews, Bob Gier and Dave Alexander |
| |
Gordon and Bob G landed in Killin's football field,
picking up Sean from a field half way along the A827 (8km and first
entry on the Winter League) and Bob M from Glen Lochay. Dave had
a nice stroll back along the reservoir to the car. |
| 5-Nov-08 |
Glencoe |
Gordon Mac |
| |
It was a nice day at Glencoe but unfortunately the
wrong choice of hill, especially as the chair wasn't running. Should
probably have gone back to Tarmachan or Ben Toe rag. |
| 12-Nov-08 |
Loch Doon |
Mark, Alistair, Sean, Dave H, Richard and Dave T |
| |
Yesterday at Loch Doon was a superb day, especially
as I got my first scoring flight for the League. Like Dave, I had
experienced the Loch Doon Torture before and was more than a little
concerned how the blue skies across Scotland had disappeared along
with the top of the ridge in cloud, which showed little sign of
lifting.
Fortunately, this had all blown off by the time we got up to launch.
Wind was NW as expected, but light so we all bombed out on our first
slope launches and bit the bullet to sweat up to the summit of Black
Craig for relaunch. Those few hundred feet made all the difference
and we were soon up and soaring to gain height for the first transition.
I set off with plenty of height but still struggled to make the
crossing, even with the tailwind, and arrived low. I had to use
the whole length of the ridge to scratch my way back up to ridge
height, but once there found easy soaring and started to relax into
my flying. And that was how I very nearly got caught out staying
too close to the ridge in the compression at the next shoulder.
I spent the best part of ten minutes, just gale hanging and trying
to weightshift away without success, until common sense took over
and I leant horizontal to reduce my profile and gain those few extra
km/h. After topping up on the slopes, I tried the transition again,
and this time gave it lots of respect flying way out over the forest
to avoid a repeat of before.
Progress was painfully slow at all times, and despite the northerly
element I still found a single finger 'wrap' on the speedbar lines
was needed to proceed most of the time. And that was the story all
the way along the ridge - keeping a good wide berth at the transitions,
edging forwards, and usually some serious scratching on arrival
at the next hill, in particular scratching ten feet above the huge
boulder field leading up to Corserine.
Once at Corserine, I followed the others for a similar return trip
back down the ridge. That would probably have been the end of my
flight, if not for seeing Sean flying in front of me gain some height
and head back down the ridge for a second run - which prompted me
to remember a Winter Club Night talk about 'three turnpoint' flights
back and forth along Tinto ridge so I set off too. On this next
run, I was certainly starting to feel the cold and just kept telling
myself that no matter where I land now, it was all a bonus, but
still managed all the way to Corserine and back for a second time,
followed by a very pleasant glide off the back to get as near to
the old mining road as possible - leaving a short 200m walkout to
get picked up by Mark and Sean (cheers!).
This is a fantastic site, on a truly impressive scale, with great
scenery and lots of potential for some distance. Thanks to Dave
for encouraging us to go for the adventure option - it certainly
paid off. |
| |
Broughton |
Mike J, Vincent, Will & others |
| |
It started smooth and silky but with an obvious wind
gradient above hill height. A couple of beats along the Heights,
Green Law and Broomy Side and back into the main bowl were fine,
then on the third traverse the wind picked up considerably, to the
extent that I was stationery between Green Law and Broomy Side,
then going backwards. I was about 2-300' above hill height and was
planning to turn and run over the back but stuck with full bar and
slowly inched forward, descending vertically to an inelegant wrestle
with lines in front of the fence. |
| 15-Nov-08 |
Cross Fell |
Sergey |
| |
Flown Cross Fell today - something I wanted to do
for couple years! It was a lil windy, so NHPC crowd and my friends
from down south have decided not to fly. Cross wind had made it
interesting to soar back upwind - thought I'll be landing out 3km
into the boonies! |
| 16-Nov-08 |
Gargunnocks |
Logan, Tommy Moonie, Tom P |
| |
2 people who arrived earlier took off on the nose
on the east side and managed to climb ~100ft but that was short
lived and they flew down to land behind the farm. Tommy Moonie and
myself took off about 20min later, managing to soar to the trees
to the east and back again but the wind died away and the sun was
getting low so we both opted to fly down. Later Tom Percival who
had been flying on the ridge to the west of the farm joined us in
the landing field. A great day to be out but not enough wind stay
up. |
| |
Gael Charn above Feshiebridge |
Mike J, Mark, Andy and Terry from Inverness |
| |
We opted for the big ridge above Feshiebridge and
the gliding centre in the hope of some NW soaring. Unfortunately
by the time we'd slogged up the wind dropped to nothing, even near
the summit of Gael Charn. Gary Williamson buzzed us, along with
various gliders before we resorted to forward launches and a beautiful
sled ride, skimming the ridge and then over the forest to the gliding
field. Definitely a day for a paramotor. |
| |
Bodesbeck |
Tommy, Dave L, Robert, Richard, Dave H and Dave
T |
| |
Got to the top at Bodesbeck just as everything faded.
There were still Cu forming, but very slowly, from the sunny slopes
of Carrifren on the opposite side of the Moffat valley. We eventually
had a glide across but there was nothing moving. |
| |
Moorfoots |
Ian Kennedy, Henny, Ian Miskin, George, Rik, Alastair
Tytler, Gordon and Craig from the Ochils, Tony Spirling |
| |
It picked up (10.30ish?) and got quite strong at times
having to use speed bar to get out front. I could not find any great
lift considering the strength of the breeze, only getting a couple
of hundred feet. A few worked their way along the ridge with some
kiting at times. I did my usual, staying close to launch but towards
lunch time it got a bit thermic and I worked my way out front managing
to get 964ft above t.o. before it died. |
| |
Bishops |
Tim Jackson & others |
| |
Wind was a long way off to the north and seemed like
wave was having an effect but a good days winter soaring was had
with many of us making the jump over to the ridge to the north (forgotten
the name). Only landed due to cold and pub suck. |
| 18-Nov-08 |
Moorfoots |
Dave T, Ian Miskin, Naomi, Robert, Richard |
| |
I arrived before 11, half expecting a gale blowing
up the hill, but it was much lighter and W. Even at Cu height (3000
?), the wind was NW so I was sure that the lower wind would turn
NW as the mixing started. After soaring around in the limited area
above the cars the thermals got going, but no sign of NW, in fact
it seemed S of W sometimes. W wind at the Moorfoots means 3 things
;- 1) Its not very lifty. 2) Its quite rough because of the "horizontal
rotor" .
3) The transition past the quarry is really difficult.
Having set a goal of a turnpoint flight (15 km min) and after 3
failed attempts to soar across the gap, I decided to glide across
as far as poss and kite to a soarable position. With 5 layers of
clothes, I'd certainly warmed up by the time I'd struggled up Broad
Law - for an into wind glide across to the bottom of Torfichen,
and more kiting. It was soarable and I finally climbed enough to
start pushing along the hill (at least above the rougher lower air
).
I kept telling myself it was easier than walking, but it didn't
seem like it, making painfully slow progress along the ridge into
wind and climbing at each of the W facing bowls. I had hoped that
the flow up the Esk valley from the Castle would have produced more
NW on the Mauldslie Hill, but it didn't, so it was really difficult
to finally get to the W face at the end and soar up.
The downwind leg back was quite fun with a few turns in thermals
rolling along the hill, and it was still quite early so one more
push into wind for a final turnpoint - which took 15 minutes for
about 1 km. By this point I'd had enough and it was sunny in the
valley, so a fast run along the ridge slowing up in the lifty bits
and I was back about 50 ft above the cars. That was enough to glide
all the way along the ridge. However, it came out at 15.6 km. |
| 22-Nov-08 |
Moorfoots |
Sergey, Ian, Dave T & others |
| |
It was great to see the Hang Gliders flying at Moorfoots
- just like the old days! There was a great turnout of keen PG pilots
- huddling in cars out of the biting wind, until the breeze calmed
enough. I was very aware of lack of time but with progress along
the ridge even slower than it was on Tuesday (although comfortably
higher ) there was a lot of mental arithmetic going on - trying
to work out how far along I could get with enough time to get back
before the end of VMC.There was a slightly stronger wind above hill
top height - which needed an occasional squeeze on the bar - but
it was more W so I realised the return would be a bit quicker. A
glorious sunset as the sun dropped through the frontal cloud in
the W, made the trip back very spectacular |
| 25-Nov-08 |
Moorfoots |
Dave T |
| |
Forecast for Tuesday was bang on - apart from the
lower wind being 45 deg more backed than it was meant to be. I arrived
before 11 at Moorfoots and it was soarable - but only just, as the
breeze was West. I opted to fly / kite along in the hope that it
would veer as some mixing got going (sound familiar?).
It was even more difficult than last Tuesday as the only soarable
bits were the W faces of the gullies - and as the afternoon went
on. At the far W end, getting back was looking unlikely so I decided
to fly across the valley and walk up Dundriech (above Eddleston),
which has some great W facing bowls. (Wish I'd gone a bit lighter
weight ).
Of course, the predicted backing of the met wind in the afternoon
happened so it was a long walk to find a soarable slope - it was
SW by the time I got to the summit. It was also really turbulent
as the pre frontal air moved in so I only soared for a short while
then flew down to Eddleston. |
| 28-Nov-08 |
Tinto |
Ian Miskin, Rik |
| |
Tinto was Tip-Top today, not it's absolute best but
still v nice with wall to wall sunshine for a change! Soarable all
day on the south side for the entire length of the ridge. Early
on there were weak but perfectly formed thermals out front so the
hill could be ignored and replaced with slurry scented bubbles.
Cloud base was only 2500 or so - level with the top. Later hills
to the south became capped with orographic and wave was apparent
at 4000 or so - we could use the low stuff but never connected with
the true system. Eventually Tinto capped with cloud and much fun
was had soaring the front of it and flying through differing layers
admiring our 'brocken spectres'. The cloud was thin so we could
relax a little and use the sun to orientate ourselves in the thin
cloud. Flying up sun provided a great fix for forward! |
| |
Campsies |
Dave T, Dave H & Tommy |
| |
Dave H, Tommy and I had an excellent day at Campsies
on Friday. Almost no met wind and light workable thermals bubbling
up from the rocks to base at 1900 ft - perfect. |
| 29-Nov-08 |
Culter Fell |
Mike Jardine, Dave T |
| |
Glenholm was in freezing fog when I arrived but I
soon climbed through the inversion and walked up Chapel Gill in
a T-shirt. Some small thermals trickling up the south side, which
helped squeeze a traversing flight across the gully towards Culter
Fell. Another slog upward and then a tricky take-off into orographic
cloud with a following light breeze and a relaxing glide down into
the valley, where the inversion was finally breaking up. |
| |
Tinto |
Alastair Tytler |
| |
Just got my wing back from being serviced and decided
to give Tinto a go. The forecast was for light NE but the talker
was showing light SSE. Decided to walk up from the car park on the
north east side hoping that the light NE wind that was visible all
the way down from Glasgow in the smoke from chimneys would give
some lift for a glide out on the north side. Got to the top at 1.30
and the air was completely still with a very light thermic breeze
coming up the south side every 10 min. Everything was so quiet and
peaceful with the mist in the valleys flowing west around Tinto
and cloud forming and drifting of the top to leave you with a beautiful
view with only a few hills showing like islands looking out east.
Took off on the south side flying over the dimple but didn't find
anything. I was hoping to maintain enough height to glide round
the east end of the hill. Not having enough height to clear the
shoulder I flew east down towards Symington and landed on the shoulder
just above the mist. On my way back over the shoulder I met up with
a line of beaters out on a shoot and spent the next half hour beating
with them before making my way back to the main path and back to
the car. The mist was up to the power lines and it immediately become
very cold and dark as you went below this inversion. A good afternoon
out but hard work. |
| 30-Nov-08 |
Tinto |
Mike J, Gordon S |
| |
Nice day on the hill. Pity the breeze wasn't a bit
more accommodating. |
| |
Schiehalion |
Cliff |
| |
Absolutely superb conditions. -5 in the glen, zero
on the summit, loads of fresh new snow, fantastic inversion, visibility
to Skye/Cairngorms/Bishop/Pentlands, 18mph N/NNW wind. Life doesn't
get much better than today. |
| |
Ben Dorain |
Norman Armstrong |
| |
Flew at Bridge of Orchy both days last weekend. Conditions
where ok if you where following a trail, otherwise knee deep snow.
I am planning to be up there tomorrow |
