Gale Hanging at Bo Peep

One of the advantages of my new job is finishing at 1pm on a Friday afternoon! Fortuitously, this Friday the winds blew from a north easterly direction so Bo Peep was on!

As I approached Bo Peep I could see a Tandem hang glider in the air and concluded this was Luke showing some paraglider pilots what hang gliding was all about. The experience was probably hampered by the fact that it was drizzling, not as the weather forecast had predicted.

After I had parked, I discovered Paul and Ian were already there and we were hopeful the rain would stop. To my surprise, Keith, Paul and Darren from the Suffolk Coastal Floaters Hang Gliding Club also arrived. With that, the rain stopped and the wind started to increase. Paul began to rig his glider and after the rest of us procrastinated over conditions, we eventually decided to rig and give it a go.

I didn't see Ian launch, but I was next. As I ground handled my glider, I struggled to keep the right wing down. The wind was strong so having Keith on the nose and Luke on the right wing wire was needed and together, we slowly worked towards launch.

It was no better on the front of the hill as the glider jostled around in the turbulent air. Keith had to retreat as his bare hands had gone numb from the cold so Luke took position on the nose. Eventually, the turbulent air smoothed just enough for me to launch. It was strong and I penetrated forwards slowly and crabbed my way along the ridge in an easterly direction.

After I had explored the ridge I found the section west of the quarry worked best. I made all the way along to the trig point, but with as the wind increased and veered more to an easterly, I didn't push on any further.

From the trig point, I pushed out from the ridge and encountered a very strange line of lift directly out front. It was pretty consistent too, and several times I managed climbs to 800 feet ATO. Timing 360's was critical as a single 360 put me back over the ridge!

After 45 minutes I started to feel cold so decided to explore the top landing field. Ian had landed at the bottom and this was very much in my mind (especially knowing the conditions I experienced on launch). I arrived over the top landing field with 300 feet and parked the glider into wind only to discover I was slowly moving backwards! I pulled full VG on and pulled the bar back to my belly and barely started to move forwards. Only after I locked my arms and accelerated the glider to maximum speed, did the glider begin to penetrate forward. I cleared the front of the hill and decided it was too windy on top, so concluded bottom landing may be the safer option!

I headed west, passed the quarry and again parked the glider into wind. As I hovered, I watched Paul as he flew his Discus down to the bottom landing field, safely landed and joined Ian. When I knew Paul had landed safely, I followed and safely landed next to the track. Shortly Keith joined us with everyone wisely concluding that landing conditions on top were probably not good for gliders and human limbs!

I was later reported that the wind gusted to 36 mph on top! A wise move to land at the bottom! After everyone had packed up, it was time for a drink in the local, the Barley Mow!