Wednesday 30th August 2000
Since bringing my cage home in April, I have had very little opportunity to get any airtime on it. This has been due to a number of factors, including weather, work, domestic commitments and to an extent lack of confidence (not wanting to show myself up on a crowded hill). With the mounting frustration of just a few short top to bottom flights since April and virtually no airtime I went to the Blorenge party in the hope that I could set that to rights.
It wasn’t to be though and strong winds meant I did my fair share of parawaiting but did manage to get a bit of ground practice in with a couple of tips from JLD himself. I came away even more frustrated but determined to put that to right.
My next day off was on the Wednesday after Blorenge and Wendy was reporting NNE at an average of 8mph. I decided to chance going down to Devils Dyke, as it was the only site I’ve flown at in the southern club (of which I am a member), and wanted to stick with familiar ground/air for my first soaring flights with the cage.
I got to the Dyke at around 1pm but even as I approached I could see it was going to be a waste of time, due to kites flying with their tails flying in an easterly direction (along the hill). There was no one there but apart from the direction the conditions were perfect, and, not wanting to pass up the chance decided to go to a different site!
I decided to try Firle as it would take the wind direction. I made a quick stop at West Firle (oops wrong turn) then went on to Firle. There was a hanglider in the air as I drove up the approach road. I walked onto the hill and saw a number of hanglider pilots sitting on the hill. After a quick chat with them it appears all of the paraglider pilots packed away some time ago as the conditions were too strong for them. The conditions had eased considerably though and it was just about light enough for me to try it!!
I walked over to launch and greeted another pg pilot waiting. I got set up and stopped do explain exactly what the hell it was I was going to try to fly, I guess I’m going to have to get used to that! The conditions were quite strong but within my capabilities (I hoped). I had never done a reverse (fixed point) take off on the cage so this was going to be another first.
I set up to launch, back to the wind, inflated, a couple of steps backwards and I was airborne! I spun in the air to face the right way and just had a little trouble getting into the cocoon but soon sorted it! A superb 25 mins in the air was the reward. I landed due to the wind dropping off! The other (red ribbon) pilot was still waiting for the right opportunity to launch. Over the next couple of hours the wind was playing a few tricks, with a nice breeze one minute then dropping off the next resulting in a couple of slope landings, I managed to get a flight of 15 mins and another of 5 mins plus a couple of shorter ones.
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By this time a couple more pg pilots had turned up and the wind was becoming a bit more consistent, BUT it had turned virtually to an east wind and was blowing along the hill. We decided to do some parawaiting to see if things would improve! A couple of pilots got off from a different launch position but struggled for flight due to the wind direction. We sat for perhaps an hour and were just about to give up and move on to a different site when we noticed the other pilots were staying up and the wind seemed to be swinging back.
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I was the first of our group to launch. Reverse launch again, and I was up and away. This resulted in a 1hr 15 min flight that I was ecstatic about. During this flight I managed to take a few photos. I decided to see if I could thermal. I mistook some strong ridge life thought, did a 360 but ended up over the top of the hill so had to land cutting short my flight! I kept the canopy inflated and walked to the launch area again and took off straight away a bit messier this time (more practice needed). This flight was an hour and the only reason I landed was because it was starting to get dark and I was the last pilot flying! All in all I managed to get over 3hours flying today!!!
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I could really appreciate the performance of the cage today and most of the time I was the highest of the stack and had the longest flights. I also saw some of the other pilots bounced around by the wind and can remember being in the same position and remember how much fun it is…not. And all of this I achieved on the Lagon, which is an intermediate glider and with me being a low airtime, low experience pilot!
Flying the cage really is something else! I haven’t had such an opportunity to appreciate the flying characteristics of the cage in the few short flights I’d had prior to today. It truly is a wonderful craft to fly. In fact you don’t so much as fly it but drive it through the air with the cage acting like a steering wheel, accelerator and brake.
A gentle turn of the cage and the glider moves in the direction you want. One of the things that really impressed me was how smooth the flight was. I would hold the cage fairly lightly and it would be dancing all over the place in the uneven breeze, but I was as steady as a rock. The idea is to let the cage do it’s own thing and you just make sure it goes where you want it to. If you pitch up (push the cage forward), you slow down but do gain a bit of extra lift when needed providing you don’t push too far for too long. Pitch Down (pull back) and you speed up, very useful for penetrating stronger wind or for a bit of speed on the down wind leg!
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I even had the chance to try a bit of backwards flying. I flew away from the ridge a bit, into open air, and simply spun 180 degrees around the hang point. There I was flying backwards! I had to think a bit more about the controls being reversed! Just a few seconds of this before spinning back to normal flying position. I did find that my landing technique definitely needs improving with a couple of good landings but the others a little clumsy! Work needed there!
All in all a fantastic day until I realised I had to fix the lights on my car in the failing daylight, but this was soon sorted out!