Flight

Flight details
Title: Billy No-Mates
Site:Combe Gibbet
Pilot:Andrew Craig
Date of flight:14th March 2013
Wing type:Paraglider
Flight details: 
Matt Pepper and I were going to go to the Dyke on Wednesday afternoon, ready for Thursday. We can't claim any credit for reading the forecast and going to the Gibbet instead - it was purely because the snowdrifts would have stopped us getting our respective luxurious camper vans to the Dyke car park.

I arrived about 1400 on Wednesday, to see two mini-paragliders (Niviuk Zions 19 and 17, I heard later) and two hang gliders up. As I heated my tin of macaroni cheese for a late lunch, I saw one of the hangies come in to land, drop a wingtip and cartwheel into the ground. I could see that he'd bent more than the usual amount of aluminium, so I turned off my stove and sprinted over. He was dangling from his half-upended glider, fortunately uninjured, and together we were able to unclip him. He was not very happy.

At about 1730 it went from too strong to too weak, so that I got about 2 minutes of inglorious air time. Down to the pub in Inkpen for an excellent dinner (thanks, Matt), then a chilly night in the van, with the soothing thrum of the Peppermobile's jet-powered heater sending me off to sleep.

As expected, the hordes arrived in the morning. I was one of the first off, forgetting to do up the pod flap of my new harness -- so of course I got nicely high and not nicely cold. Luckily I was able to push forward and find some calm enough air to take my hands off the brakes and do it up in. Lesson: prepare a new pre-flight check list for a new harness!

I decided to land anyway to put some batteries in my vario rather than rely only on my little solar one. As I did so, of course, the first gaggle got away. But back in the air a lot of us found a good climb starting from just in front of the trees. Quickly at first, then slowly, we climbed to 3900 ASL. One or two of the large gaggle headed back to the hill, but I thought that was plenty high enough to start an XC, and we drifted along in zeros at the top of the climb.

Eventually there was just me and two othe
Cross-country league entry
Flight type:Flight with 3 turnpoints
Takeoff:51.35805,-1.479204
To:51.358967,-1.491052
To:51.315149,-1.468148
To:51.242959,-1.377053
Finish at:51.209456,-1.302126
Landing place:
Witness:GPS file
Distance22.63 km
Score22.63 km
GPS evidence from:Gibbetmarch.kml
Comments
Chris Townsend14th Mar 02:02: Nice flight. Nice write-up. You always seem to charm your way to an easy retrieve ;o)
Stephen Purdie14th Mar 02:34: I spent much of the afternoon at the Dyke listening jealously to the pilots on XC from Coombe complaining about how cold it was up there while trying not to bust the 5500' airspace. Eventually Richard Bungay landed 10km short of the Dyke, for 93 km, having arrived during one of the overdeveloped periods. The Dyke started well, but was blighted by the level of bun-fighting which prevented anyone bar Wagga from truly breaking away from the hill, though a few brave attempts were made. A sea breeze-like wind arrived at about two to send most pilots scurrying home, but it came back on soon after and despite weaker conditions, pilots were able to get somewhat better height gains of perhaps 1000'...:0( Sea air proper arrived at about 15:30 or so, putting an end to the day's entertainment of the aviation variety, though the road provided a fair parcel of fun... I took a relaxing ride on the Mentor 3 to the top of the stack while Rob Chisholm gave the superb Galaxy dual a test flight. The Galaxy demo will be going back to Germany soon, so any dual pilots wanting a go let me know asap. TTFN Steve Purdie ---------------------------------- NOVA, ADVANCE, OZONE, GIN, BGD, INDEPENDENCE, PRO-DESIGN, SKYMAN, AIRWORKS, KORTEL, GO-PRO, FLYMASTER, AIRCOTEC, U-TURN, AIRCROSS, MOYES, WOODY VALLEY & MANY MORE... --------------------------------
Matthew Pepper14th Mar 09:09: As Andrew said I Spent a lovely warm night in the van wednesday night. I should of bought a T5 years ago. Waking up all refreshed on the site, with Andrew passing you a cup of tea through the window, its the way forward.. ;-) It switched on as predicted just after 10am. With over 5 months off flying, a new harness and a proper thermic spring day too, i was focused this morning.. Well kind of, I still had a new harness to tweek and speed bar to set up. (A big thank you Andrew for the help with the speed bar and the knot lesson, when everyone else was starting to launch, your a gentleman..) When I launched I felt straight at home immediately. it was just like riding a bike, 5 minutes in the air and I was cranking it like I flew yesterday, its all about muscle memory... 15 minutes later though my hands were so cold it was becoming proper painful, I think Carlo’s cloud base temperature prediction was bang on. Add the wind chill factor too.. It was colder than my ex wife up there today! Time to land and get my other gloves... I had 4 jobs live yesterday, so i had to be available for phone calls, its also gillys birthday today, so I had to pick up her present. So no going over the back for me. But I spent the best part of the day blissfully flying the new Woody Valley Xalps GTO. its Light, comfortable and it took the minimum of faffing to set up. Well chuffed with it. No compromise at all.. I had about 3.5 h...
Matthew Pepper14th Mar 09:09: ...ours of thermaling in nice 5 up, proper thermals. A great way to kick start my flying this year. loads of fun was to be had thermalling with Red Kites and pretty well behaved pilots. I spent a good hour right out the front at base and was happy with that for my first day back in thje saddle. Last years weather was so shocking I was weened off flying to be honest. Days like yesterday is what its all about.... Ps.. Have you seen Andrews new camper? Its the Dogs B******ks, (mine is a self build in progress) he has even got a sun glasses holder fitted to the roof lining....!? “With a fluid action..!” (I had proper camper envy) he also has a van heater now. Even though his thrifty Scottish ways wont allow him to use it.. :-) Not i... I think a pilot climbed out on the thermal released when I opened my side loading door this morning.. just finished work now, thats the price you pay for a play day.. Well worth it.. Spring has sprung.
Stephen Purdie15th Mar 01:54: Ok, this happens every time we get a good Dyke forecast (Coombe being better.) Why don't we send a large raiding party to Coombe on the next good forecast? Large enough that the Dyke will be empty enough that it's easy to climb out... TTFN Steve Purdie AIRWORKS ---------------------------------- NOVA, ADVANCE, OZONE, GIN, BGD, INDEPENDENCE, PRO-DESIGN, SKYMAN, AIRWORKS, KORTEL, GO-PRO, FLYMASTER, AIRCOTEC, U-TURN, AIRCROSS, MOYES, WOODY VALLEY & MANY MORE... --------------------------------
Luke Nichol15th Mar 01:55: Very nice flight and write up Andrew , I've got to get myself over to that site- looks like a great route to fly back to the dyke.