Unpaid Leave!

North-westerly and showers; it wasn’t the most promising of weather forecasts! I had another unpaid day off due to the austerity measures Honeywell were taking and after I had consulted Wendy [the Devil's Dyke weather station] I packed my gear and headed to the Dyke. I arrived at 10am and noticed that a recently introduced £2 a day parking charge was now in effect, as a National Trust member with my 'park for free sticker', there was no need for payment.

Initially I was the only pilot there. The wind felt very strong, much more than the forecast suggested so I took my time unloading the car. A short while later Nick, Tim and James arrived which made a total of 4 hang gliders on the hill. When I was ready, the wind had backed to west of north-west and dropped significantly. It looked like I would be wind dummy [first to launch], so after being assisted to launch, I waited for the wind to pick up. A short while later, I saw birds soaring [not flapping their wings], and after I felt the wind increase, I accelerated the glider, launched and turned immediately towards the bowl. I'd assumed with a northerly component in the wind that the bowl may work, but it didn't. I was able to scratch around, with my height fluctuating between just above to just below ridge height. Tim had also launched and was working the northern end of the pub. He looked to be a good 200 feet above me which was an opportunity not to be missed, so I headed towards him and was rewarded with a good climb!

The wind was very much more westerly than I had realised so the pub hill was the only place to be. Nick had now joined us and between the 3 of us, we worked the lift making height gains of around 500-600 ft then before dropping back to ridge height. It was definitely cyclic lift and after 20 minutes, Tim top landed but I decided to see if I could break the hour again. Nick was doing his usual antics [buzzing launch a few times] but I simply concentrated on staying up.

Tim re-joined us and all 3 of us continued to work the lift until it simply switched off leaving all 3 of us scratching for enough height to top land. Unfortunately 3 gliders trying to work a very small area of lift were not compatible with the available airspace [and my experience]. I was the sacrifice! After getting low, I opted for the bottom landing field. On my way down I beat back and forth across the tree line which was a surprising source of lift, however, it was evident I was heading downwards so I ultimately set-up for a slightly cross wind landing and was able to successfully put down without event [even if it did feel a little fast].

Someone somewhere must have felt guilty for squeezing me out of that crucial lift at the end, so a car was sent down to collect me. That saved me from that long trek up the front of the hill back to take-off!

Back on top everyone commented that it was very noble of me to free up the airspace so they could land [of course with sly smiles on their faces!]. They even convinced James, who was now ready, to launch. I was convinced it would be a one way ticket so jumped into my car and headed down to collect my glider. If James were to go down, I'd be happy to return him to the top.

Back at the bottom landing field, I could see James was doing a fine job of scratching in the available lift but ultimately it was futile and he soon joined me [I was able to snap a picture of his final landing approach]. A short while later a couple of paragliders appeared, as they struggled in the weak lift it signalled to me the end of flying for today.

Conclusion

Well I didn't set any personal bests, but I think all the recent towing with the Suffolk Coastal Floaters Hang Gliding club has certainly improved my flying. I'm sure on days such as this in the past I'd have been in the bottom landing field that much sooner!

YouTube

Well who would believe it... some months later I'm scanning YouTube for recent hang gliding videos and I find that someone had videoed my launch, not the most exciting video but nice all the same!