Devil's Dyke

It's Sunday morning and I'm headed to the Devil's Dyke via the A23. As I looked southward towards the Devil's Dyke it doesn't look good; there's a notable inversion and the air is grey and motionless. I pressed on as I had seen these conditions before and it had turned out to be ideal for flying!

As I got closer I still couldn't see anyone flying but on arrival, around 10.30 am, there's a buzz of activity as other pilots are assembling their hang-gliders. The wind is perfect, 10-15 mph and blowing from the north-west. It is forecast to swing more westerly, so now is the time to fly.

Flight 1

I'm soon ready, hooked in and at launch. In the air there are 2 other hang gliders soaring the hill in front of the pub, and some paragliders looked to be ready. I launch my hang glider and slowly gain 50 to 100 feet before I joined the established soaring pattern, beating back and forth along the Devil's Dyke pub spur. The lift band was marginal and the airspace felt more crowded than it actually was, this happens when everyone is squeezed in to a tight lift band!

It isn't long before the two paragliders launch and join the rest of us. This makes navigation a little more interesting although I find the paraglider flight paths more predictable than the hang glider's. Below it sounded like there was pheasant shoot or something going on beneath us as the pops of the shot guns could be clearly heard. I hoped they were not aimed in our direction!

Eventually I decided it's time to try for a top landing in the paddock. In preparation, I started to gain height ready for my final approach. Somewhere I read that 150 feet above take-off was required, so I scratched back and forth until my vario registered the required height. My downwind turn was not the best and it's obvious that I'm way too high! (see the photograph below). In an attempt to loose height, I started to beat back and forth, but this futile and I only managed to get my toes on the ground before the inevitable overshoot occurred!

After overshooting I returned to my previous flight pattern until I was high enough for a second top landing attempt. This time I got everything right and successfully landed, collapsed the glider and retreated into the pub for a hot cup of tea.

Flight 2

After being refreshed I decided to squeeze a second flight in. Normally I say to myself, 'quit whilst you're ahead', and pack-up after my first flight. Today the conditions are still okay; I've probably lost some quality flying because of this attitude in the past, so today I'm determined to fly a second time... famous last words!

The conditions seemed a little weaker than my earlier flight, but the glider launched happily and I started beating back and forth. The lift wasn't as good as it was earlier, and several times I dropped beneath take-off. I kept the glider close into the hill and slowly scratched my way back up before loosing height again. This whole process seemed to be on repeat and after 10 minutes, I decided to call it a day. All I needed was enough height for my final top landing. That took another 10 minutes to achieve!

I set up my approach and before I knew it, things started going wrong! My approach was totally off and I end up flying downwind directly over the paddock. I know I needed to turn into wind but something isn't quite as it was before, the just wasn't turning and I was coming down fast, headed for the trees at the rear of the paddock! My options were exhausted as I knew if I did get the glider turned around, it wouldn't penetrate forwards and I would descend into the tree canopy directly below!

I quickly evaluated all options; most of which resulted in a tree landing or worse, but one looked possible; a cross wind dash to a green patch behind the Devil's Dyke pub. I was sure there'd be rota but I was out of time! I pulled the bar in and dived, crosswind, towards my chosen landing spot. I hoped, with plenty of airspeed, it would reduce the influence of any rota.

Within seconds, I swooped down and followed the contour of the hill onto the lee side of the hill! Fortunately there is no noticeable rota but I'm going fast, confirmed by the ground whizzing by beneath! I began a turn left, up the slope when my left wheel lightly touched the ground. It made an amazing whizz sound as it span up to speed! This had turned into a nil wind landing on an up-hill slope! I aggressively flared the glider and landed perfectly on my feed. My accelerated heart rate slowly started to return to normal! I was glad to be down!

At this point I knew there'd be several concerned pilots headed in my direction, so I un-clipped, dropped my glider ready to signal that I am okay. An old lady was first on the scene, she slowly walked past and asks, 'was that a crash landing?'. I simply smiled and was more pleased to be in one piece! One of the hang glider pilots [Clive] arrived and I signalled with a thumbs up that I'm good!

Lessons

I made a point of speaking to other experienced pilots after this incident to see where I'd gone wrong and what I should have done differently. Oz and another pilot that I didn't know were great and gave me some valuable tips. The most important was my set-up and approach. It was totally wrong and required a last minute tight turn into wind. Also, the wind had swung to the west making my chosen approach even more difficult.

The best advice was not to put the glider where big sharp turns would be required. My approach should have been a gradual turn into wind, keeping my eyes on where I wanted to land. By keeping my attention on my chosen landing spot, I could have easily judged when I was going wrong and changed my approach accordingly.

One of the positive points of feedback was that I held my nerve and didn't panic. Although as I pointed out, I shouldn't have been so stupid to get myself into the situation in the first place!