
Spring has sprung and all that and its back
to the flying after the winter lay-off. I'll re-iterate the “Ides of March
warning in Skywings – watch out for those thermals. Most of you won't have
flown much over the winter and will be rusty at the roughest time of the year,
so take it easy. But do make the effort to get out and fly if you can. Some of
the guys have been to foreign places and actually written about it (guess what,
Julian still hasn’t written about
The
AGM – November 25th 2005
Those present: Charlie Ingram, Bob Dunthorn, Bill Connon, Brian O’Donnell, John Newton, Graeme Ferguson, Adrian Smith, Julian Robinson and Matt Church. Five minutes into Charlie’s speech Simon Lucas and Guilleme Perrin arrived. Apologies from Scott Mather, Kevin Will, Grahame Smith, Gustav, Steve Wright, Giles Adam and Big Ian Smith. Duncan Booth almost made it but didn’t quite and so had to apologise. Ross Paterson apologised later and had a good excuse of a maths exam.
Charlie opened proceedings by thanking all the committee for their work over the year, and to his daughter for driving a jeep down from Craiglich (she's 13, so wait a few years and will be the perfect retrieve driver).
Julian, just back from Brazil, wasn’t quite ready with the accounts but by the end of the meeting came up with the number: started the year with £2000, finished with £2200 which included some money from Simon Lucas who “sold” his old reserve parachute for a donation.
Bob gave
the low-down on the sites. There were the usual restrictions on some sites due
to nesting birds (St Cyrus) or birds being shot (Pressendye). An agreement was
reached with the Invercauld estate for driving up Morrone. This has been
utilised a fair bit and we hope that the trial period will become permanent.
The chairlift at Cairnwell was opened during the summer and was used by a few
visitors from

An
initiative for setting up a web-based sites' guide to
After a
well-needed beer break, John Newton gave his safety round-up. There have been 2
incident forms submitted: Brian Sandison's bouncing on Pressendye and Simon
Lucas' spin at St Cyrus. Other incidents have been Alex Tup and Ralf at St
Cyrus (both very low airtime and not heeding advice) and Charlie's prang on
landing too hard at Tap (breaking both uprights). Bob had a scare on the ramp
in
The usual suspects were re-elected to the committee, and Ian Smith was voted into a new position of Trophy Officer as he ought to be doing in his spare time.
President – Charlie Ingram Secretary – Bob Dunthorn
Treasurer – Julian Robinson Safety (PG & HG) – John Newton
Sites – Bob Dunthorn Trophies – Ian Smith
Newsletter & Website – Matthew Church
Other business discussed included SHPF plans to run a first aid course and parachute repack this year, and the club will try to organise another repack here in Aberdeen.
The rate of subs for the club was held at £20 for 2006. Bob tried to get it reduced but it was felt that this is still pretty low and covers costs for the year without eating into the funds in the bank. Charlie produced his chequebook straight away and paid up (for 2005 as well as 2006 as he kept on forgetting to pay).
Julian proposed supporting the Braemar Mountain Rescue, just in case we need them, and a one-off payment of £100 was passed, with subsequent donations to be voted on each year.
The
Ozone Chabre paragliding competition is being run in
Club
Competitions

Nobody can remember if the MacRonald Spring Trophy was held so as Brian O’Donnell was certainly the best newcomer onto the XC scene we awarded it to him.
The Big Stiff One went to the Big Stiff One, otherwise known as Ian Smith. However he had to share it with Ross Paterson and Steve Blackler as they all flew to Portsoy together from Craiglich (61km). Unfortunately none of them was at the AGM to receive their trophy.

The Big Soft One was won by Matthew Church, who flew from Morrone (on the first day the hill was drivable) and got beyond Pitlochry (45km).

Julian won the Autumn Pilchard quite convincingly, being the only one to manage to fly that day and got 20km.
Julian deserves special mention for coming 2nd in the serial class of the Brazilian Xceara competition, flying over 150km twice.

Meanwhile some late entries by the paragliders in the form of Scott Mather (broken line) and Kevin Will (line ripped out, £45 repair and postage £40) didn’t stop Charlie from winning the Crash Test Dummy. He broke both uprights at Tap, though we’re a bit disappointed there are no photos.

Bob won
the prestigious and unique Floofie to the Bottom for consistently providing
entertainment, the highlight being his crash on the ramp in
Matt also rather convincingly won the George Watt Memorial XC Handicap League and his 12 flights won the Over the Back bottle of whisky as well.
|
|
PILOT |
|
POINTS TOTAL |
OTB |
Total Km Flown |
Wing Factor |
Km behind |
|
1 |
Matt |
Church |
15.46 |
12 |
123.7 |
8 |
0.0 |
|
2 |
Simon |
Lucas |
9.10 |
0 |
9.0 |
8 |
50.9 |
|
3 |
Ian |
Smith |
6.24 |
3 |
104.0 |
12 |
81.6 |
|
4 |
Julian |
Robinson |
7.68 |
0 |
4.1 |
8 |
62.3 |
|
5 |
Ross |
|
4.07 |
1 |
61.0 |
15 |
170.9 |
|
5 |
Steve |
Blackler |
4.07 |
1 |
61.0 |
15 |
170.9 |
|
7 |
Brian |
O'Donnell |
3.18 |
2 |
25.4 |
8 |
98.3 |
|
8 |
Richy |
Grundy |
2.23 |
2 |
17.8 |
8 |
105.9 |
|
9 |
Kevin |
Will |
1.96 |
2 |
15.7 |
8 |
108.0 |
|
10 |
Giles |
Adam |
1.44 |
2 |
11.5 |
8 |
112.2 |
|
11 |
|
Smith |
1.41 |
2 |
11.3 |
8 |
112.4 |
|
12 |
Scott |
Mather |
0.63 |
1 |
5.0 |
8 |
118.7 |
|
13 |
Graeme |
Connelly |
0.54 |
0 |
4.3 |
8 |
119.4 |
|
14 |
John |
|
0.25 |
0 |
2.0 |
8 |
121.7 |
Total Distance Flown: 576.4km
And with that we got some more beers before heading off for what is becoming a tradition of a post-AGM curry.
All Go
in Algo by Scott Mather
After enjoying a pleasant summer of flying
mainly at Morrone, including my first journey to cloudbase at over 5000 feet
and an XC dash to land in front of Mar Lodge, it was time to get my CP! Some
might say I have done this in the wrong order, possibly the BHPA, but that’s
one of the joys of flying here in NE Scotland where the nearest instructor is
either Tinto or
Anyway, after much trawling of Skywings, the
Internet and discussions with my wife I decided that Dean Ashby's Active Edge
CP course at Algonadales,
So it was off early one September Saturday
morning to catch the plane from
Upon reaching
We were driven up to Algo by Sam Rhodes from
Andalucian Experience, which is one of 2 guiding companies in the town (the
other being FlySpain), to be told that there had only been one day's flying the
previous week due to wind and rain. So much for my thinking! It was an
interesting 2 hour trip from the coast into the mountains, past the villages
that were spread throughout the parched countryside, with their Moorish towers
and Christian churches side by side on rocky pinnacles. Once at Algo it was
20mph winds and heavy showers: surely this wasn’t the great weather I had been
expecting. The village itself stands to the south side of Lejar, is the main
departure point for most XC’s.
We were decanted at our accommodation that
was to be our base for the week and got sorted out before meeting up with our
instructor Dean, and Baz Rhodes of Andalucian Experience. We had our first of
many visits to Canijos, the best eating place in the village. After a couple of
refreshing cervezas it was arranged to meet up in the morning to give a run
down of the course and a check of equipment.
On the Sunday afternoon it was off to the
Montellano site about 45 minutes to the north, over looking over the plain. The
northerly wind is uncommon at this time of year and when we got to the site it
was quite light and variable but very hot, a recurring theme for the week.
There were a couple of local pilots out but not flying so it gave us a bit of
time to discuss the site. As with all the sites we went to, except Lijar,
Montellano is tight and surrounded by nasty thorny bushes so competent ground
handling is a necessity. Most sites also have an interesting obstacle but more
of that later. Eventually the breeze did lift and the locals took off for a
quick flop.
Great: spend £800, travel 5 hours, get boiled
alive and this was it?
Thankfully it wasn’t. Watching the swallows
follow the rising thermals, it seemed they were cycling steadily every 6
minutes or so. Time to unpack and get ready, and I elected to go second. Adam,
a Robbie Williams tribute artist, went first. Everything went fine except the
flying wasn’t exactly to do with angels ... more paper darts, top to bottom. My turn, time not to show yourself up in front of everyone.
Thankfully it all went well, but after two short beats with little lift I too
was heading off to land. I flew through a couple of buoyant areas ... maybe
things would get better. Errol came next and he seemed to stay up a bitty
longer. We waited for the last guy, Colin, but there was no show. A few other
gliders appeared and were holding height so it looked good but still no Colin.
Would we get a lift up to the top for another flight? Dean came to pick us up.
It turned out that it was while since Colin flew and that Dean considered the
site a bit tight for his experience. Up top we discovered it was a group from
Flyspain flying. They were getting plenty of time in the air so we were eager
to get off. And off we went. This time there was lift
and the occasional thermal coming through easily spotted by the swallows, dust
and insects rising up through the air. After 20 mins of flying on this small
site it was time to go and land to let the Flyspain lot off for their second
flight, just as a C141 Starlifter flew over about 2000 feet above. As the
evening approached it became cooler and more pleasant: even the poor donkey that
was tethered in the landing field looked happier. So a quick stop at a roadside
café and the first day was done.
Next day we met up with Jose, the school
owner and our local instructor. It was off to Montellano again as the wind was
still northerly but forecast to swing to the west in the afternoon. The wind
was very light when we got there and there was a very visible inversion. Again
the Flyspain collective turned up. While Jose got myself,
Adam and Errol off for what was a very short barely buoyant float down to the
bottom, Colin was at a gentle slope to brush up his forward launches. We were
all packing up when the Flyspain lot followed almost the same flight pattern,
except one of them who appeared to be a bit confused by the light and
changeable wind and decided to do a very low 180 and narrowly miss a collection
of olive trees. She got away with it but more was to come from this lady who
became known as Wily Coyote to us for her amazing proximity flying or collision
with ground objects. Jose came up trumps on the food side at lunch time. In
Montellano village is a western style bar with wagon wheels outside and sherry
barrels as places to rest your drinks: the equivalent of a spit and sawdust pub
here. It was one of the best feeds of the week with calamares, chicken wings,
pork kebabs and more, all for less than £5, including beers.
In the afternoon it was off to Ronda de Reica
(old Ronda), a limestone escarpment that had been the site of a
So it was to Tuesday and our first trip up
Lijar. First thing to note is that this is a long drive, over half an hour to
the top but once there you get a great view of the surrounding area, as does
the bloke in the firewatch tower! The S.E launch is a large clear area without
any obstructions. Height-wise it is about the same as Morrone. Today's exercise
was to get out over the landing field and do 360s, in the thermals if possible!
Being under instruction you had to listen to your instructor and after having
radio problems over the first couple of days Dean could have been mistaken for
thinking I wasn’t listening to him. I got plenty of lift close to launch but I
was told to push out in front of the hill. I could have gained a bit of height
here but thought I'd better do as told and had a steady 30 min flight down to
the landing field, picking up small bits of lift from piles of stones in the
fields or the back of trees. Meanwhile Errol got his first thermic flight,
along with his first collapse and first real wish to get to the ground quickly.
Of course it was starting to really work and it took him over 40 mins to get
down. In the meantime the Flyspain crew were trying to get away to the
southeast but failing due to an inversion. Colin got the first of his tandem
flights. Wily Coyote put in another appearance, this time over-flying the only
building in this 120 acre field by all of 3 feet. When she did land she annoyed
the shepherd by frightening his sheep and spreading them around the field!
In the afternoon it was off to El Bosque
about 35 mins to the west within a national park that is home to Gryphon
Vultures. You can see
After being woken at a wee-bit-too early hour
by a cockerel in the neighbour’s garden, it was up Lejar again. Whilst setting
up in very light conditions a dust devil came through, leaving our gliders were
in a tangle. I blame this for my rubbish forward launch which ended up with me
just running off into the bushes. All that effort when it was so hot! “When did
I last forward launch” I thought to myself? Over a year ago,
at Menstrie. I sorted the wing out for the second attempt and launched
cleanly, followed by a steady float down to landing with little to report. We
headed to El Bosque for the afternoon as it was very windy and only a couple of
hang gliders were at it, but true to form the wind dropped with the sun. Once
at the top it was already completely calm so while the other two guys set off
for a top to bottom. I choose to drive down while Jose flew my glider. I could
hear Dean on radio being calm and telling “me” to come in, in my own time, only
to suddenly hear him on the radio going “calm down” and “take it easy”.
Apparently Jose had spiralled it in to the landing
field and Dean was on his feet pretty sharpish. The rest were fairly amused. On
the way back Jose had a phone call saying that due to military flying there would
be no flying in the area allowed until Friday afternoon. It transpired that an
English guy in the village had a close call with a jet during the day. The
evening at JJ’s went well for Adam and his newly formed band, including a debut
by the German bass player. The place was pretty full and the atmosphere good.
The event was such a success that the bar owner invited Adam back next year and
offered to put him up for a fortnight if he played two gigs. By the sound if
things it will happen; he enjoyed the night and the flying even more.

With no flying the next day, Colin went off
with Dean to do some forward launching practice and I went along to do my CP
exam. Afterwards Jose took us to a lake for a swim then off to the town of
Zahara, which is in a brilliant location with a tower, church and white house
on a pinnacle of rock over looking the lake. The rock is actually soarable in
the right conditions and many try to over-fly the town to get to a good range
of hills to it's south before heading off for Ronda
further to the SE.
So it was Friday, last day of the course and
off to El Bosque for the afternoon. It was very windy when we got there but
headed up to launch to wait for it to drop, as it had done so quickly on
Wednesday. We were getting ready to unpack when the Flyspain group rolled up.
Perhaps being too courteous we let them set up before us. Mistake, as plenty of
parawaiting while they faffed in what appeared to be perfect conditions. Three
of them got off before the wind switched off the hill and when it came on again
it had dropped so much it was forward launches. After seeing a couple of
“interesting” attempts I decided to pack up and while doing so saw the Wily
Coyote launch into a tree, which she proceeded to get hung up in ... nice!
Thankfully she was alright, just a small bruise and lots of embarrassment. And
that was the end of the course.
While the others went home, I joined Baz for
a day's flying, again to El Bosque with 6 others including Iain Hyslop of
Extreme, who was kindly putting me up and taking me to airport. Lejar was being
used for a hang glider comp that day and early on they were heading through
town for launch.
The first flight was under an inversion and
due to my previous lack of success at this site I wasn’t hopeful. And so it was
to be 15 mins of getting boinged around at the inversion and then a steady
2.5m/s down all the way to the landing area where very small thermals were
coming off the road and rocks in the area making approach interesting. The
afternoon was much more promising with cumulus forming but the wind was still
strong-ish at launch. The more experienced guys took off into very strong lift
and it wasn’t very long before they were at cloudbase. Remembering how quickly
it dropped off I got ready and was off as soon as possible for what was a
lovely smooth flight with gentle steady 0.5 -2m/s thermals. I got above
take-off and able to have an explore out front with
the other 3 guys. We had missed the boat on the trips to cloudbase though as
the inversion had set in again but this time it was only gentle boings. It was
so gentle you could big ears down 200m and climb back up in about 3 mins. The
vultures were out and came alongside and there were spells you were flying
above them. Unfortunately I’d left the camera in the harness as the first
flight was so rough I thought it wasn’t worth the bother. It would have been
fine to have got more flying like this during the week.
So was it a good place for doing a CP? If you
are competent at ground handling and can make your own good decisions then on
balance, yes. It is possible to get a fair amount of airtime and do the
required exercises (bar the fact that the sites aren’t conducive to top
landings) while experiencing thermal flying to some extent. The down side being
the smallish sites (in a Scottish context) and the thermals can unnerve some,
particularly while trying to get to landing fields. With the Monarch flights to
Airspace
Issues
There have been a few changes around
Argyll and
Site Information Update by Dr. Bob, Sites Officer, AHPC
SNH have requested that the club restricts our flying at St. Cyrus again
this year due to Raptors breeding on the cliffs. As before, flying should be
restrcted to north of take-off where the track goes past the Kirk and ends at
the cliff top. The effective dates are beginning of April to middle of
August. A further update will be provided in due course.
A Message from the El Ex-Presidenté
Geoff May
On April 22nd -23rd
I will be cycling in the 2006 MS150 bike tour. This is a 180mile ride from
http://ms150.org/edon.cfm?id=185027
Alternatively, if you don't trust websites
for making payments drop me an email and I'll see if we can work out some
alternative way of doing it. I promise that anyone who donates will have a
fantastic time flying that weekend while I'm slogging my guts out. Unless you have given-up the sport, of course....
Any amount you feel comfortable giving is
very much appreciated. Thank you very much for your support.
Staying with the USA, Bob is heading out there from
26th April to 12th May, so expect a write up next issue.
A Pokhara Stopover by Simon Lucas
Hence in early December I
landed at Kathmandu to be met by a man in a suit and another in white coat -
representatives of Blue Sky Paragliding, who had come to take me away (ha ha).
After a night in Kathmandu it was straight to Pokhara's Lakeside area – which
turned out to be the most laid back and easy going part of
There are two paragliding businesses in Pokhara. Zabdi
Keen (CFI from Flying Fever,
Weather in the area was the
most reliable I think I have ever experienced in 12 years of flying. I flew 17
out 19 days, one was lost due to a weather front and the other because the King
was flying a chopper in the area and we were grounded for security reasons (a
rest or arrest – you choose!) However conditions were routinely inverted with
thermals being fairly punchy and topping out quite low. It was possible to fly
for several hours most days but XC conditions were quite demanding. I made
several short flights up to the end of the Sarankot ridge, landing out and
getting the local bus back, jammed full of people, chickens etc. Rides and retrieves cost £1-2 each by 4WD
navette or local taxi, sharing with other pilots.

It's also possible to fly
at other sites – Dicki Danda is another hill to the NE of Pokhara, where its easier to get to the “Green Wall” - a longer, higher ridge
that forces thermals up through the inversions. The flying was strong and
punchy, but enabled us to fly closer to the bigger mountains and get a taster
of the higher Himalayan landscape. XC conditions get better in February-March,
with higher bases. Endless long ridges march down from the high mountains - if
the inversions break, you can go more or less anywhere you dare – but there are
few roads for retrieve, so you would need to walk and porter your way out.
Radio and telephone communications are also variable so you need to be self
sufficient. XC routes are gradually being opened up by visitors and a few
dedicated (and good!) local pilots.

The
Pointy peak is Machapucchare
After the best part of
three weeks it was time to move on, after a quick stop in
A note on security – ongoing tension between the Maoist movement (actually pro-democracy and not very Maoist) and the King is evident. The tourism industry (and tourist areas) are not targeted by either side, however there are many roadblocks and a strong army presence. During my time I did witness some tense demonstrations in Pokhara town centre which escalated into violence. Take an informed decision before you go - the likelihood is that you will not see anything unless you are in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Letters
to the Editor, News and Gossip
Fiona
Work, who wrote the article
about flying red wings in the previous Dangler, has piled-in whilst on holiday
in
John
Newton has also had a bit of
a prang, trying to top land at Leadlich. He claims it
was just a bit of a bump and drag, but I’ve a feeling it may have been more as
he has bought a new glider, a Gradient Aspen 2. Large size as befits his
current lardy-boy aspect.
Scott
Mather and Graeme Connelly have been flying a few
times this year. Even had gentle, oh so gentle, thermals at The Cairnwell in
late January, and half an hour up at Glen Clova. Quoting:
“Whoopee!”
Dr Bob went to the Tap with Big Ian and Steve the Student, meeting up with Bill Connon - they all had a nil wind top-to-bottom, except Bob who
nobly drove the jeep down rather than crash trying to run off.
Here's a glider Simon didn't get to test, the
prototype Water Melon which manufacturers hope will pass DHV 1 with Teddy Test
pilot in control. Scott's daughter, Caitlin,
sees a picture of a paraglider in Cross Country or Skywings and everyone is
Daddy, even Alex Hoffer. If only Alex could father a kid like Caitlin, or Scott
was as good a pilot as Alex!
For those that maybe missed the smartgroup
email, John Pendry, an old-time hang
glider and paraglider world champion, is running a kite surfing school at La
Franqui in
Sarah
and Kirk Milligan in
Gustav
Fischnaller has a new
address in
Cairnwell Mountain Sports Ltd
Ebnersteig 12
A-6166 Fulpmes
Tirol
Austria
Phone: 0043 5225 62942,
Email: info@cairnwellmountainsports.com
Webpage: www.cairnwellmountainsports.com
He has got accommodation in Fulpmes, with skiing and flying right there. The Schlick 2000 just a mile as the crow flies and The Elfer in Neustift is 10 minutes drive away. Skiing in the winter, naturally, but also in the summer on the glacier. Have a look at the webpage; there is a very active club in Fulpmes and in Neustift, with also Airwave and Wills Wing 4km away and Wings of Change paragliders in Fulpnes itself. So if you fancy some Alpine flying, get in touch (it’s a nice place to fly).
Winter
Height Gain Trophy 2005-2006
Pieced together from various emails and
telephone conversations, the following table shows the results so far. Any more
flights to add, then let me know. By the way, the
trophy is a bottle.
Scott Mather 11/02/06 Glen Clova 320ft
Julian Robinson 14/01/06 Ben
Gulabin 20ft
John Newton 14/01/06 Ben Gulabin 10ft
Glider
Testing by Simon Lucas
Here’s the low-down on three DHV-2 gliders I
tested in Bright,
Gliders tested were Advance Sigma 6 (size
28), Gradient
I managed to get several flights on these
gliders, with most airtime in fairly strong conditions (4-6 m/s cores) with 2
or more turbulent inversions. I flew short XCs on most gliders (13-20km) and
also flew them in calm evening conditions. Manoeuvres undertaken were
wing-overs, asymmetric collapses at trim speed and on full bar, symmetric collapses
and spiral dives. In most cases I put in collapses with a bit of roll and pitch
rather than just level flight. Collapses were counter steered where necessary
to stabilise direction. (I am not a test or acro pilot but I like to be able to
handle these manoeuvres on any glider I intend to fly XC!).
With all these gliders the most noticeable
thing compared to the Quarx (and the Nova Xyon I had before that) is that they are more pitch damped, carrying more energy out
of turns. I find this makes them easier to fly.
Glide performance
We managed to glide the 3 side by side for
about a kilometre, but the air was mildly thermic and we did not ballast up to
equal wing loadings. Gliders with high loading braked slightly to maintain
station. Thus the attempted test gave a rough indication rather than any
accuracy. All 3 gliders were very similar in performance in these conditions -
height difference after a kilometre was minimal. Differences in wing loading
and resulting hands-off speed were the dominant factor.
Advance Sigma 6 28
I found the glider to be a good performer,
but less agile than the other two tested. The brake feedback is outstanding –
while thermalling I could feel every nuance of energy in both sides of the
wing, enabling me to squeeze every bit of possible height.
However I found the feedback through the
risers somewhat unclear, with a tendency for the load to switch suddenly
(rather than progressively) between risers in strong conditions. The glider
also sits back slightly on entering thermals, which delays the turn-in a
little. (Wing loading and harness settings might be a factor).

In manoeuvres, this glider is the most
benign of those I tested. Induced asymmetric tucks go in and out slowly and
progressively at trim and on full bar. Small inputs stabilise the course OK. I
found symmetric tucks also benign – the wing regains shape quickly, although
the tips stayed in and had to be pumped out. The recovery was slow and
controlled with little direction change. Spiral dives take a while to lock in, I found the exit very smooth with the glider damping out
surge very effectively. Over all it struck me as very benign with little
tendency to build up large amounts of energy which get more difficult to
handle.
On evening flights, the glide performance
was very noticeable – the glider seems to damp out pitch/roll and maintain
glide performance with minimal pilot input.
++ Glide performance in floaty conditions,
brake feedback, safety / low energy build up in manoeuvres
-- Riser feedback, lower agility (but not a
barge)
‘Accessible svelte performance cruiser out flies sporty posers’
Nova
Tattoo Medium
As soon as I took off it was immediately
apparent that this is an agile sporty machine. Roll damping seems minimal. Initially
the sporty feel makes it seem that pitch damping is also low leading to
cautious over control, however after a bit of airtime and a few manoeuvres I
found that pitch is very well balanced and you can safely let the glider have
its head.


In light conditions this is a dream –
riser feedback is excellent, and small light thermals can be worked very
easily. It is tempting to turn this glider too much when it would be more
efficient to fly it straight! After the Sigma 6, I found the brake feedback somewhat
flat and uninformative.
However in strong punchy conditions I found
the roll sensitivity somewhat irksome. It was difficult to punch into bullets -
I suffered from being punched out of cores (and pulled down into big sink
pockets) and having to whip the glider round parallel to the ground and back
onto course. From a stability point of view doing this
with the glider was no problem at all, and it carries through the energy very
well, but it takes mental concentration and keeps you very busy in such conditions.
Discussion with other Tattoo pilots showed they were generally flying slightly
higher in the weight range than I was (100-105 kg on the medium) which may be a
factor. This is not a criticism but is intended to be indicative of the flying
style of the glider. Other than the roll in punchy conditions, in the air the
glider feels very direct and simple to fly – just weight shift and brake one side and off you go!
Given the agility and energy retention I
expected this glider to be more of a handful in manoeuvres, but found that this
was not necessarily so. The glider has very good behaviour with asymmetric
tucks, after the collapse it turns a little, the partially collapsed wing stops
and sits at a certain point/attitude, holds in that position for a split second
and then progressively reinflates. This seemed to be consistent for me,
accelerated asymmetric tucks were similar with a little more attention required
to control the direction. Symmetric tucks went in and came out smartly with no
direction change. Leading edge resistance felt higher than on the Sigma and the
Weight shifted wingovers were very
coordinated, however a little brake input results in a rapid build up of bank
angle and energy so care is needed. Given this fact I expected spiral dives to
be feisty – however I found them very progressive, winding the energy in and
out with really precise brake inputs was a treat. Winding out the energy over 1
rotation and coming out was fine, with the glider damping out the surge very
well. However I would say that this is not a glider to learn to spiral on –
ham-fisted brake inputs will have a sudden and dramatic effect!
++ Agility, sporty handling, energy carry
through
-- Low roll damping (unless you like it that
way), perhaps sensitivity to wing loading, energy build up if you are not used
to it.
‘Gully gobbling mountain glider gives Ozone
a run for its money’
Gradient
My initial flight on this glider was on a
very rough day, but the combination of the glider and my being high in the
weight range resulted in a really easy XC. The ability of this glider to smooth
out the air and let the pilot get on with thermalling and XC decision making
was admirable. I twice deliberately flew into air where other gaggle members
had tucked badly, and had no problems at all.
Feedback through risers and brakes was
excellent, giving the wing a very coordinated feel, although brake information
is not quite so detailed as the Sigma 6. The wing felt
very accessible using a similar flying style to the Quarx, coordinating both
sides of the wing with the brakes and weight shifting round the sky. Low saves
were a treat, with the glider very manoeuvrable in gullies and not
over-reacting to bullets. The wing tells you very clearly where the energy is
in the thermal and it’s easy to dial into tight 360’s in the core.

Flying the glider in light conditions was
less rewarding than the others tested, high wing loading making a difference.
It did not feel as easy to “glide on’ with this glider as the Sigma 6,
requiring more pilot input to maintain a level canopy.
In manoeuvres, this glider felt slightly
‘older style’ than the other two tested. Asymmetric tucks at trim went in
easily and then came out in a continuous sequence rather than with the ‘stabilised
pause’ that I seemed to experience on the Tattoo and the Sigma 6. Accelerated
asymmetric tucks felt more extreme than on the other gliders but were still
easy to stabilise. Symmetric tucks went in and came out quickly, with little
direction change. Wingovers were very progressive with a linear build up of
energy with brake input. After initiation, spirals tended to tighten somewhat
requiring a little opposite brake to stabilise, but were easy to exit bleeding
off the energy in one rotation and the glider damping out the surge.
Finally this glider is noticeably lighter
than the other gliders (5.4kg versus 6.5kg+).
(As may be detected, I personally like the
handling of this glider and hope to test the next size up!).
++ Coordinated handling, agility, handles
rough air, light weight
-- Not much
‘Versatile all rounder with sport and cruise
settings all in one'
In summary:
|
Glider |
|
DHV 2s |
Comments |
Flights |
|
Gradient 26 |
80-100 kg |
12/34 |
++ Coordinated handling,
agility, handles rough air -- Not much ‘Versatile all rounder
with sport and cruise settings all in one' |
4 hrs |
|
Advance Sigma 6 28 |
85-110 kg |
4/34 |
++ Glide performance in
float conditions, brake feedback, safety / low energy build up in manoeuvres -- Riser feedback, lower
agility (but not a barge) ‘Accessible svelte
performance cruiser out flies sporty posers’ |
5 hrs |
|
Nova Tattoo Medium |
90-110 kg |
15/34 |
++ Agility, sporty
handling, energy carry through -- Low roll damping
(unless you like it that way), perhaps sensitivity to wing loading, energy
build up if you are not used to it. ‘Gully gobbling mountain
glider gives Ozone a run for its money’ |
4 hrs |
As a postscript I flew Matt’s new Ozone
Mantra, a DHV 2-3. OK, it was only a late-evening top-to-bottom but I
immediately noticed the difference in handling and landed with a huge grin.
However while I am current at the moment, I think I’m a bit chicken to fly this
standard of glider without being so all the time. But then that's a good excuse
to fly all the time.
Curious About Its Colour ... Ratho Reserve Throw by Scott Mather
Shortly after I had got my wing and harness,
I decided to get myself a reserve just in case anything bad were
to happen. I saw it as cheap insurance and so did my wife who paid for half of
it as a birthday present. It was one of those presents that you sure never
wanted to use, just like the blow up sheep you got for your 21st
birthday from your mates.
With help from Billy Valentine, I put it in
the harness and understood the bits that would require to be checked once in a
while to ensure that it should give a positive outcome if used. I was quite
happy with removing it from the harness and putting it back in, but I still
never knew what colour it was.
That was to be changed. At the end of
February the SHPF had organised its annual chuck and repack event at Ratho
adventure centre, to the west of
First up was the biggest guy at the event who
strapped into his Gin harness and had a tandem reserve stuffed in it. There we
were up on the roof of the café some 70-80 feet above the climbing area
watching the first victim, sorry, participant get checked that all his straps
were in place and he was properly attached to the zip wire itself. He was ready
to go: feet over the edge ... sitting on the edge ... trying to shuffle over
the side ... then he was off. Reserve out and inflated before he came to a
halt. His was yellow. As I was sixth to go I stayed up already in my harness
and getting slightly more nervous as somebody else threw their colourful nylon
reserve. They had all worked fine so far, though some seemed quicker to
actually inflate than others, but that could be to do with the speed and
strength of the throw and your travel down the wire.
“Scott Mather?” Damn, it was my turn. It is
fair to say I do not like heights, 15 foot up a ladder can make me nervous, so
I checked everything myself as they checked it as well. They screwed closed the
Karabiners on the harness loops and checked they were attached to the zip line,
as I checked myself as PIC or plummeter in command. “Sit on the edge and just
shuffle yourself off”. Try it with a partially inflated harness and very tight
straps, “try to be a bit straighter”, then I am off twisting one way, then the
other, grab the handle and throw back hard. My helmet has moved on my head and
I grab where the risers would be: it is now truly a free ride! I hear the
fabric rustle out behind me and feel the snap as the reserve is fully inflated
and slows you down just as we run out of wire. That was good.
From time of initial drop to chucking the
handle was 2 seconds, barely 2 for the lines to be fully extended and around
1.5 before the parachute started to open and another 2 until it was fully
deployed. It is easy to see in the worse case it is easy to see that a 100m
sprinter could be over the line before we have stabilised to the rated 4-5 ms-1
descent rate. During the remaining throws there were a few incidences like the
reserve being folded inside out, and lines in the reserve bag slowing the
opening of the chute itself. In the end 35 people including 2 hangies threw
their reserves. The majority were for the first time who were
reassured by the fact they work and had a better understanding of the actual
process.
Then of course came
the repack. It was fair to say that each type was different. The newer apex
pull down models with tabs on them were relatively straight forward to do,
those without the tabs a bitty longer to do. The next ones which seemed to take
a while to do due to the meticulous folding required were the popular
Metamorfosi chutes that were invariably matched up with
All in all it was good experience to learn
more about the sensation of the deployment and how your reserve is put together
and packed. It is not rocket science at the end of the day but for piece of
mind you could always pay for someone to do it. Or learn for that time you are
on holiday and it is deployed by a twig on the handle and needs repacked. As
for next year I may well go back down, but if I do I will pull the reserve and
pack it again before I go, as this may be the only time I can take the chance
of it not deploying correctly. And it was yellow at the end of the day!
Advert
Moyes Litespeed, good condition, goes well, never pranged (not even a bent upright) £1,200 ono. Call Mike 07850 432892 for info and to arrange a test flight. Includes 2 spare uprights, held for 3 seasons, never used.
Safety
Notes
The Flying Safety Committee is keen to
encourage pilots to have their gliders serviced regularly and to help have
published an Annual Canopy Inspection form for use with paragliders. If you are
going to get your wing serviced then enclose a form, getting one either by
downloading from the BHPA website, or contact Matt
It has been noticed in other parts of the
country that some low-airtime pilots are spending far too much time looking at
their wing while flying. I've noticed it with some experienced pilots as well
(not AHPC members I hasten to add). Presumably they are trying to reassure
themselves that its still there, or not collapsed, or something. Anyway, they're
not looking around so much. Make sure its not you, especially if I'm flying as
well.
A Trip Down Under by Matthew Church
For those who have
problems reading, see www.ahpc.org.uk for the story in
little words and big pictures.
With winter
looming I found my thoughts turning to the southern hemisphere again.
Good food in KL
aided the recovery from the long flight and got us prepared for 8 hours to
Then all of a
sudden it was time to head for
Rob Steane was to
be my partner-in-crime during the week while everyone else was working.
However, while flying at Winton on the sea breeze while we were landing at
Hobart, he decided to top land in dodgy air on a borrowed wing and pranged in,
breaking his arm. Not a good start to the season, and ruled him out of the
comps at Killarney and Bright.

Unfortunately the weather didn't cooperate for me
and I got very little flying in (along with the rest of

Several new places are also being explored and I
ended up helping.
Another new site was 5 minutes from Simon and
Karen's, on the coast. As it happened, my new Mantra turned up on the same day
as Simon's new Swing Astral 4. We were both very good and had a half hour of
ground handling the new wings before flying the new site (as befits Simon's
post of safety officer at the local club).
Back to Bright for the first comp of the trip – a
fun one called the Australian Festival of Free Flying, Fun and Frolics. Or
something like that anyway. This was a 4 day event
with both hangy and para sections. Spot landings for those that wanted it
(hangies did better than the paras!) while the XC bit was fly where you wanted
and dwnload your GPS into CompeGPS for an optimised score. Best score wins. We
picked Simon Lucas up at

A few more days free flying at Bright saw Simon
Lucas doing his first flight as a tandem pilot, having been a passenger with
Zabdi in

As a thank you for not killing her, Karen took
Simon and her kids gold panning. They even found some gold.
While the Allens went their own way for a family
holiday and the Lucas went to
After a few days of tourist stuff (looking for
wombats) I dropped Lu off at the airport and picked up Simon Lucas (I’m sure I
lost out on that one). We went back to Bright and Simon did his glider testing
before ordering the Sigma 6. We moved on to Manilla hoping to pick up the Sigma
from the dealer, Godfrey Weness (owner of Mt Borah). Unfortunately the wing
coming in that week turned out to be an Epsilon, so Simon bought the demo wing,
which had gone to the south coast so had to be posted up. We got some pretty
good flying in, though nothing epic. The one day that was particularly good and
2 of the locals flew over 190km, Simon bombed on the
wrong side of the Borah ridge and had to walk the same 7km flown back to the
landing field. I also went down, with Dan, another British pilot, only 25km
out. As we packed up a group went over low and got the thermal we’d missed. But
there was a fair bit of over-development about, as there was all week, and so
it wasn’t too bad being on the ground (as we had to keep telling ourselves). I
had a couple of terrible days following that, with 5 flights to the bomb-out
LZ’s, though nobody was going far. Would have nice to stay in
the air for all that. In penitence after the 5th
top-to-bottom I walked back to the farm, a 7km walk. After 6.5km one of the
locals driving back up the hill convinced me to go for
another flight, and I broke the pattern with a lovely flight to Manilla town
and almost back to the farm. There were some fantastic afternoon thunderstorms,
with torrential rain and wind gusts over 50 knots. The town lost power one
afternoon and we had to go to
Next stop was Killarney for the Open competition
there. Simon got his Sigma from the post office and Katka from the bus station,
so immediately liked the place. This site has been a hang gliding place for
donkey’s years for pilots from

The next task was in the same direction but I just
missed goal (70km out of 76) by keeping too far from the convergence cloud,
having been sucked into it the previous day and “wasting” 10 minutes getting
out of. The last task should have been cancelled but wasn’t, just stopped once
the leaders landed at goal in the rain – the clouds were massive – which is why
I opted to land. But I just finished the comp at my target of top half of the
field.
Simon then took Katka off for a drive around Oz
while I went with Max (from
And suddenly it was time to go home. Three months
away isn’t that long after all. But I’d had some great flying, putting over 70
hours and 900km on my new wing, seen some old friends and made some new ones.
And best of all, missed the