The weather this year has left a lot to be desired from a paragliding point of view. Especially for weekend pilots. It was great to hear that Tommy, Barry and Dave had flown this week but When would it be MY TURN?
Saturday was starting to look like it might be the first opportunity to fly in 2016! FFS it's the end of February!! Light (maybe too light) NE or ENE so Bridgend was the place to go.
Tommy's plan - get on take off for 12ish. Sounded good to me so made my way over and arrived about 10.30. In part to allow me time to take a leisurely stroll up the hill and... I wanted to be ready to fly ASAP. Got to the parking to find Tommy and Gerald already there. they were both as keen as me! The only problem being the distinct lack of a breeze.
St Mary's loch did look pretty spectacular. The sky was blue and the loch was super smooth and reflecting the surrounding hills. Did I mention the lack of a breeze?
We decided to head up the hill. Tommy and Gerald both showing their age with the number of rest stops. As i'm a fair bit younger I appreciated the stops but wanted to FLY. As we got higher there was a slight breeze but nothing spectacular. Would make a forward launch or running reverse easier if needed.
Got to the top. Wind more easterly than expected but still light. Derek was next to appear. Then Ged made it up. Still not a lot happening but little bits of waft were coming through. Not quite enough to tempt me off but Tommy had a short go.
Rob, Tim and Dave made an appearance. Things seemed to be getting better. More of a North Easterly. Which was nice. Shame it also coencided with a load of darker clouds / spread out.
Rob, Tommy and Derek had a wee fly. Dave joined them. It then seemed to go more northerly so I headed off. Picked up a bit to. Got a very pleasant wee while in the air. A couple of hundred feet above take off too at times in a mixture of thermals and dynamic soaring.
The occasional flurry of very fine snow was a tad distracting at times. Derek landed. No one else took off (apparently a tad strong on TO) but was fine in the air. So I had the place to myself. Just explored the sky, practised some thermalling and a couple of wingovers too. Brainfreeze and cold fingers got me landing. Heated gloves on 25% just didn't cut it!
As I landed Tim and Gerald took off. Tim had a lovely flight. Gerald had a bit of a harness malfunction. He got down safe but I don't think he was particularly comfortable. Didn't manage to get into the harness so dangled his way down.
More flying ensued.. Then it all seemed to dye off. I think I lobbed off first. and was maintaining quite nicely but then a few more joined me. So there were 4 or 5 people soaring the NE face. Tommy headed down first. Then Tim, Rob and it turned into a procession down.
Brilliant day out. Debrief at the Gordon Arms then home in time for tea. More of the same please.
Jamie
