I was working away from home this week. Then a message came through on the group. It might be on at Glencoe at the weekend.
I've never knowingly been to Glencoe. I've driven through the are once so I was both keen and nervous about the prospect.
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Rob, Sean and Gerald headed up on Thursday and managed to get some flying in on Friday. I drove home from oxfordshire Thursday but had negotiated a "pass" for the day.
Friday came. All the previous enthusiasm for the trip seemed to have evaporated. Which I kind of understood. It's a bit of a trek. Big hills. Mountains even! add to that the spring conditions. Chance of wind and plenty of sun on the ground. With that combination (and a new area to me!) I was ready to pack some anti-diarrhoeal pills just in case.. (but forgot!)
Dudley was showing some interest so a plan was formed.
I got to Dudleys place by 07.30. We then picked DaveH up in Edinburgh and off to the hill. I've since discovered that going direct from lockerbie would be a quicker option but was happy to go with company the first trip.
A stop on the way at Loch Lubnaig
for coffee and a quick picture or two (hill was reflected in the still loch) then continued on. We passed the Green Welly stop. (Which was of interest to me as an school friend works on their website) and then on and up to the Glencoe Mountain resort.
It wasn't the borders. or even the lakes. The scale of the place felt very intimidating!
The car park was weird! Lots of people in ski and snowboarding kit + 40 or 50 paragliders getting themselves sorted out. Gerald and Sean had headed up but we grabbed a quick bacon roll with Rob before jumping on the chairlift (very civilized was to get take off) and headed up the hill. I bought a multi pas for £10 but hadn't realised a single ticket was £5 and the lift stopped taking people up the hill at 15:30. Will remember that next time especially as we probably got to the top at about 11 so had missed out on a bit of top to bottom flying action.
It looked like the hill was hosting a bpcup or scottish nationals comp (back when both were well attended). Several skygods were present along with a familiar mix of scottish, lakes, and other pilots. I believe Brendan Reid, Mike Cavanagh and Barney Woodhead and co planned and executed a 73km triangle (scoring 234 points on the xcleague!).
Gordon Smythe was first up. Boated about for a bit then slope landed. Gerald had a couple of launch attempts but with so many people watching (and the intimidating terrain) didn't get off.
There was then a period of about 2 hours when quite strong thermal cycles came through. The background breeze was strong enough to.
I was in full watch and wait mode. Some of the top pilots took off. along with red ribbons. The more normal pilots hung about and watched some more. Things were working. Dudley was snoring. 
People were going up. Quite quickly at times but it didn't seem too rock and roll.
Gerald got off. As did Sean. Derek got off too. Then Dudley and Rob were off and flying. At that point there seemed to be about 5 people left on the hill and I eventually got the glider set up and ready to go. No wind. slight breeze from the north. no wind. slight breeze from the south. arse. 10 min later it came good and 3 of us launched.
buuuuuuuuuurbbbbbb sink every where! Sled ride it was.
The three gliders were my team 5 red. an artik 2 and a nova ion2. It wasn't a race to the landing field but it was close! I wobbled about trying to find anything. a less sinky line. It seemed to work as the other tow had landed by the time I was setting up on approach.
beeP buuuurbb BeEp bEeP beeP
so something was going up. I turned. wobbled. squared and did a 360. not lifty all the way round but at about 100ft I wasn't ready to crank things over too much.
Beeeep BEEep I was going up. so continued to turn. 7 minutes later I managed to get out of the lift for long enough to close the flap on the pod harness. it was getting cold and I was above the top of the hill :-)
I kept going up for a wee while then decided to wander over to the hill out front. it was in sun but not hugely into wind according to my gps. sink all the way. so after flying ofer the kings house hotel I changed my mind and flew towards the pyrimid hill (still struggling with names of things). I got a climb out front of the hill and climbed up to the top of it.
another moment of indecision (no one else in / around the sky as far as I could see) so I flew down and landed by the road! 35 min of quite extreme flying. 1200ft/min up at times. and 900ft/min down at others with a full range in between.
I took off. I thermalled up and I landed safe. so not too disappointed with the day. Dudley made it down Glencoe valley and back which gave him a 20km flat triangle.
Dudleys flight
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Seans flight
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Jamies flight
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Sean made it to Fort William. Rob and Gerald made it to the landing field. No idea where Derek got to.
A good day out and I can see myself going back.
Video. Pictures and track logs will get added as I poke and prod at the flightlog.
Jamie
Pictures.
