Typical Day at the Dyke

My arms were still pretty sore from yesterday’s energetic flight, but it's not very often I get the chance to fly the Devil's Dyke two days in a row.

Unlike yesterday, the wind was much weaker and the abundance of paragliders in the sky confirmed this. I quickly rigged as the weather reports I'd seen suggested the wind strength would ease later in the day. After I had resolved a slight hiccup after rigging my glider from short packed [sail twisted through 90 degrees on the end consoles], I was ready to go. After the struggle I had yesterday attaching the nose wire, I was adamant I was going to do this myself without assistance. The slightly weaker wind made this task much easier. Afterwards, Johnny Carr assisted me with a hang check and I was ready to go.

Like yesterday the launch was crosswind and I gained plenty of airspeed before I left the ground. It was then a quick dash across the bowl where the north-facing ridge looked like it would be working. I left the remaining paragliders in the bowl and continued down towards Truleigh.

I arrived at the power cables with only 100 feet gained since take-off so opted to turn back. This set the general flight plan for the remainder of my flight. After 25 minutes I was back in the bowl and struggled to stay up. I beat back and forth in front of the pub desperately trying to gain enough height to scrape in for a top landing. In the corner of my eye I saw a rigid wing glider ground loop upon landing and concerned pilots dashed to assist. I was slowly sinking lower and lower and after several more beats back and forth, I was in that ever so familiar place of below ridge height.

As the treetops grew ever closer, I conceded to the inevitable and set-up for a bottom landing. I assumed I'd be landing somewhere in the middle of the bottom landing field but completely forgot I was now flying my Sting 3 and not my Target. Net result, I landed perfectly in the allocated landing zone; I couldn't have done better if I had tried!