Barbed Wire Isn't Good For Gliders!

Headed towards the Devil's Dyke along the A23, I didn’t see anyone flying. When I arrived at take-off I saw pilots had begun to slowly rig their gliders, however, as I stepped out of my car and felt the strength of the wind, it made me feel a little uneasy.

After I had walked around taking wind measurements (12-22 mph), I realised summer was over and winter was just around the corner. I returned to my car and donned my flying suit as I had developed a bit of a chill!

A couple of hangies had taken to the air, but Mark and I were not convinced. At least an hour passed before the wind appeared to not gust as much. I fetched my glider and started to rig it but when it came to attaching the nose wire, I really struggled. Eventually, with the help of 2 other pilots it was secured and I was clipped in.

The Sting 3:168 has quite a large sail area and the gusts of wind did their uttermost to throw me. Eventually I was assisted to the edge of the hill. The wind was well off to the north so a tricky crosswind take-off was needed. Fortunately, a lull in the wind gave me the opportunity to launch; and I kept the bar pulled as I accelerated the glider. Once airborne, I dashed across the bowl to the north facing ridge where I connected with lift and continued in a westward direction.

For the given wind strength, it wasn't that buoyant [must have been a high pressure system?]. Upon reaching the Pylons I started maximising as much lift as I could find. My goal today was to finally reach Truleigh Hill [although I'd been close in the past, I'd not made it all the way along!]. Whilst maximising my height I was buzzed several times by some very fast sailplanes.

Finally I was confident enough to cross the Pylons and after some rough air, arrived at Truleigh Hill for the first time. Truleigh Hill is basically a great big bowl and I found the air here to be exceptionally smooth. It reminded me of that air at Woolacombe earlier in the year. I felt pretty comfortable so I folded my arms and rested my elbows on the control bar and admired the view! I was unable to zip my pod up because my puller wasn't on the Velcro fastener [it must have trailed behind me somewhere]. My legs had become a little numb from pushing out, so Truleigh Hill gave me an opportunity to have a good wiggle to get the blood pumping again!

Eventually I returned to launch where I found the air to be pretty rough in places. My arms had begun to complain [I'm simply not used to this sort of flying]. After several attempts at top landing, I became frustrated and after my fourth attempt which was again a little too high, I was adamant to get down. I slowed the glider and let it drift backward and slowly descend. This technique looked like it would work and eventually I was low enough to attempt a proper top landing. It was pretty difficult to judge wind direction so I assumed it was northerly. I approached the paddock headed directly towards the pub. Unfortunately this meant towards all the parked gliders and the barbed wire fence. As someone commented later, I almost got away with it but at the moment I touched down, a sudden strong gust of wind caught me unawares, lifted my nose and almost ground looped me. My kingpost and the barbed wire fence stopped me going all the way over. Very quickly, all the other pilots got me the right way up again and that was that. The only damage: two slight scratches on the right leading edge.