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North Wales HangNorth Wales HangNorth Wales HangNorth Wales Hang----Gliding & Paragliding ClubGliding & Paragliding ClubGliding & Paragliding ClubGliding & Paragliding Club

Newsletter Newsletter Newsletter Newsletter –––– August August August August 2008200820082008

Dave Edwards prepares to launch at Llangollen – May 2008

From the From the From the From the Chairman &Chairman &Chairman &Chairman & Editor Editor Editor Editor

Carl Wallbank crossed the Dee Estuary by hang-glider a couple of years ago and flew back to

Wallasey. Now the Dee crossing has been done by a paraglider and Dave Edwards is the man to

be congratulated! Within minutes of taking off at Moel Accre on the Saturday of the August Bank

Holiday weekend, he hooked a thermal and left the hill (with Keith Colder close by who, alas, bombed

out shortly after). Dave tells me he found the air very buoyant throughout the flight. Dave found further

climbs over Mold and Connah’s Quay, where he climbed towards the bottom of airspace over the

Wiorral - and crossed the Dee at the top of the estuary. Dave used up his remaining height as he made

his way up the Wirral shore, to land just north of Parkgate.

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Some might say that this route was a ‘safe option’ crossing: I feel that anyone crossing further north

over the open expanses of sand and marsh would be taking a big risk. I think it was a wise route to take

and this flight goes down in Club history as the first Dee crossing by paraglider – well done, Dave!

Meanwhile, others had fun that day. I was the first off at Accre and spent two and a half hours flogging

up and down the hill with gains of up to 500ft ATO, but never high enough, I felt, to leave the hill.

I know I lack Dave’s thermaling skills – perhaps I also lack some of his courage to go for it! Others

flew in the buoyant air, but it got more overcast and gusty so we all bagged up soon after 3pm.

Meanwhile, other members were enjoying the sea air - and what may well have been wave conditions -

at Great Orme. Brian Dillon had to B-line stall out of very strong lift and rumour has it that he was seen

to kiss the ground on landing! (See his Website report).

Dave’s flight has not disturbed Stu Lloyd – now with a new glider – from his leading position in Club

PG XC league, having taken full advantage of all too few flying opportunities. Earlier in the month, Ian

Home made an XC (with Stu Lloyd for most of the way) from Llangollen to Gobowen on a borrowed

Nova Mentor glider he was testing: sounds like a good one if that is what it could do on Ian’s second

go with it!

On the Hang Gliding front, it has been one of the poorest summers for years here in North Wales but

some good flying has been done abroad with our Club’s leading HG pilots, Carl Wallbank and Dave

‘Shedsy’ Shields both doing very well. Shedsy started the competition season off in January,

participating in Australia’s Forbes Flatland Competition and then the Bogong Cup. He had a top 20

finish in both comps and the results briefly put him as the second highest ranking British pilot in the

world, behind Carl Wallbank, who is now ranked third in the world!

The main competitions this year were the Pre-Worlds held in late June/early July in Laragne and the

European Championships, held over the middle two weeks of July, in Griefenberg, Austria. The British

entered two teams (A and B) in the Pre-worlds, with Carl as Captain of the A team and Shedsy a

member of the B team. You may have read that that team GB won the Pre-Worlds with Carl personally

in at 4th. The B team came in 7

th, with Shedsy at 36 out of 117 competitors. The Euro’s saw another top

10 finish for Carl – in at 8, with Shedsy up to 22 out of 99. Very well done, Carl and Shedsy!

Laragne was busy again in late July / early August, with a few North Wales HG Pilots at the Dutch

Nationals, then following on to the British Nationals. Jamie Hanlon, Jimbo Seward, Olly and Myles

Kynaston all did well in the Dutch, with Olly and Myles crossing the line to goal first and second on

one of the days, and the whole group getting to goal on several occasions. All in all, a good season for

North Wales HG pilots abroad, but not a particularly good season on our own territory!

I am pleased to report that Mike Rimmer is steadily recovering from this accident at Thursaston back in

June. He is now at home, but still unable to move about without crutches. We look forward to seeing

him out and about again.

About the features that follow: It’s not often that paragliders are able to head back into wind to make

triangle flights but Simon Wilson has recently done so, as related below. It may only a small triangle,

but a great achievement nonetheless. Also, it is easy to forget how time consuming and frustrating it

was to be learning to fly. We wanted to soar like eagles but could only leave the ground briefly – like

pheasants! In the second of the following features, Stuart Taylor reminds us how it was. Keep at it,

Stephen, you are getting there fast!

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FFFFEATURESEATURESEATURESEATURES

My First Triangle

Simon Wilson I rolled and rattled up the road from Froncysllte to the site at Llangollen, arriving at the same time as Andrew ... and someone else whose name I've forgotten! Andrew voiced his motto 'We can't all be wrong', and after booting up we headed across the field with our gliders, towards take-off. There was just the slightest NNW drift evident in the clouds, which seemed to me to be attaining bottom-top distances of around 1000'. It was consistent with the forecast and we were expecting the wind to increase a little through the afternoon. Ian Home and others were lounging around in the take-off field, Ian sprawling in his harness amongst the grasses. At the end of his lines lay a shiny new glider! Sure enough, he explained they were waiting for another breeze to come along. As I was getting my gear together, Nick arrived, sporting his trademark grin. Isn't it good when it goes to plan? Over the next half hour the breeze built up, partially thermic and partially prevailing wind. Quickly, Andrew, Nick and I were laying out our wings on the edge. As Andrew was about to launch a cheeky gust took his glider over his head and down onto Nick. I grabbed the opportunity to take off, followed by Ian and the others. Soon we were all bumbling around between launch and the town. It was a joy to take advantage of the light wind, which enabled Ian to reach the town with plenty of height. I played over Pengwern Vale (the name of the valley beneath Llangollen take-off. Ed) for a bit, in the gentle and smooth thermals before heading back to the ridge. Halfway back my vario started making a funny noise, a constant low drone - it's revenge for not being charged up! I flew over to the tree line, half-thinking of landing and scrounging some batteries from someone, but Nick and I found ourselves sharing a thermal above the tree line: it seemed a shame to waste it We flew around each other for a bit as I listened to the sound of Nick's vario, and watched his glider keenly for air movements. A few more turns and Nick headed back towards the town. I'd managed to make a bit more height and decided to stick with it, flying quite slowly as there was none of the usual rough air around take-off. It was most pleasant to be having an easy time of it, and I rose into the misty air to what seemed like a few hundred feet below cloud base at what I reckon was about 3000ft., but with the prevailing wind being so light I was still just a little way behind take-off. Remembering Stuart's Lloydd’s advice, I continued to circle around under the cloud, listening for any slight movement of the glider that might indicate where the thermal had got to. By the time I was over the Ceiriog Valley, I was judging my sink rate against the horizon and a distinctive hill in the Shropshire direction. I was faintly hearing the bagpipes being played at Chirk Castle, and I heard a cry from a bird of prey also in that direction. The hill appeared to be rising above the horizon and I decided there was no more lift to be found where I was. I headed in the direction of Chirk Castle, the bagpipes and bird's cry, and especially to a south-facing wooded bank with electricity poles. I had in mind a possible landing in the Castle grounds, but my hopes were set on a thermal from the wooded bank, and to my surprise,

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there was one! The glider rocked back and forth and I was rewarded with a climb which took me to just below cloud base again, high over the Castle car-park. I'd noticed the dark base of an area of cloud to the north, and a swift passed me from that direction. The dark patch was elongated towards Froncysyllte, and I decided to see whether I could get back to the safety of the ridge in that direction. I wasn't expecting to get there, but I flew all the way under cloud, travelling fast against the light wind and maintaining height until I was three-quarters of the way there. At this point I was slowly losing height and the ground was about 600ft below. I had chosen a landing field, but as I drew closer, I was excited to see the smoke from a bonfire being pulled westward instead of winding over the ridge. I reached the area and found a really good climb. By now I was in tune with the glider, the air, gauging ascent and descent from landmarks (Dinas Bran from here) and I was enjoying a flight without the bleating of a vario. When I reckoned I was high enough to make it back to Llangollen take-off, I gave no thought to going further, but left the thermal on my final glide. On the way back I used the speedbar to get back as fast as possible and damp any glider movements. Flying over my new wife and parents-in-law waiting down below, I waved excitedly, circled twice and set down in the take-off field, pleased as punch! My flight turned out to be a triangle of about 3k on each side: my longest flight to date! In the meantime, the others had remained near in the vicinity of take-off – and some were getting a lift up from the bottom landing field. It was certainly a good idea to follow that thermal!

Got my CP – now what? Stephen Taylor

I began my paragliding training with Beyond Extreme in June 07, and got ‘signed off’ as a Club Pilot at the end of February 2008. The first thing I did was to join NWHGPC and Long Mynd Soaring Club; next was waiting to get out and actually fly! That’s when things got a bit more difficult than I thought they would. Like a lot of people, I looked at getting my CP as equivalent to passing the driving test and that I’d soon be out and about flying independently. However, it soon became obvious that my knowledge and experience of flying sites was very limited. All of my training flights were at Gyrn Moelfre or Black Knoll, (south end of Long Mynd ridge). At the Gyrn, I’d only done top to bottom flights with all of my soaring flights, slope and top landings done at Black Knoll. This is not in any way a criticism of the training that I received, I would recommend Mark Dann and Beyond Extreme to anyone, but more a reflection of how difficult it can be to actually get out and get in good training days, especially when work gets in the way on weekdays. I’d often wondered why we were having a good day’s training and yet there were no, or very few, experienced pilots there. The answer is obvious now: pilots want to ridge soar, take advantage of thermals, go cross country and not just get in a five minute top to bottom flight. Although I’d learned a great deal about suitable flying weather when training, it wasn’t my decision when and where to go, I just phoned Mark and he either said that it’s on today or it’s not. The same with actually taking off and flying - the final decision was the instructors.

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I soon realised that I still needed a lot of help. I’d met Andrew Donnison just before I’d got my CP and he gave me more information about the role of Club Coaches. As a new pilot, this contact was extremely important and the help and advice that I got from Andrew really helped me on my way to gain experience and air time. Andrew always emphasised the safety aspects but also made it clear that the final decisions were mine alone. Paragliding is quite hard mentally because you’re constantly making decisions that affect not only the way that you are flying but what actions and decisions others make. As I’ve got to meet and fly with members of this club one of the most positive things has been how friendly and helpful everyone has been. Every time that I’ve been out I’ve had help and encouragement from more experienced pilots. All pilots want to get in the air flying but many of you have spent time helping me and other low airtime pilots. Over the last few months I’ve flown at Llangollen, Penycloddiau East, Moel Accre, Gyrn Moelfre, Moel Famau, Thustaston and Long Mynd and although I now have over 11 hours airtime, I still intend to keep my red ribbon on for a few more hours. The next step is to gain airtime, pass my Pilot theory test and start cross country flying. But maybe improving my landings should be a priority!

WWWWHAT’S ONHAT’S ONHAT’S ONHAT’S ON???? Monthly Club Meetings assemble from 7.30 onwards at Broughton Wings Social Club at Airbus UK, Broughton, Chester. Talks or whatever start at 8.15pm

Monday 29th September Club Night at BWSC – Talk by Peter Selby – The history of man powered flight

Monday 27th October Club Night at BWSC – TBA

Monday 24th November Club Night at BWSC – Talk by Brad Nicholas, Snowdon Gliders – Seventeen years of flying in Snowdonia

Saturday 24th January 2009 North Wales & North West Parachute Repack – at BWSC

Monday 26th January Club Night at BWSC – TBA

Monday 23rd February Club Night at BWSC – TBA

Monday 30th March Club Night at BWSC – Annual General Meeting

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