Eventually Arrived at the Dyke

What a day of running around! I'd watched the forecast carefully and considered it might be a tad bit light at the Devil's Dyke and that all paraglider pilots that had been in hibernation would awaken and be on the hill! Instead, I decided to gain some brownie points and assisted the Mrs who was running the Brighton half marathon.

After my Mrs set off on her half marathon, I contemplated what to do for the next 2 hours; bit of a no brainer... a quick trip up to the Devil's Dyke! When I got there I was surprised to see that the hang gliders had come out; including a new bunch of red ribbons! The wind was also stronger than I had expected. Only one paraglider was flying and the rest were waiting for the wind to drop!

I couldn't stay for long before I had to return to Brighton to pick up the Mrs, so after a chat with the pilots I returned to collect her then headed home to collect my glider. It looked like it was actually on!

At 14:30, I arrived for the second time at the Devil's Dyke, but this time, I was equipped to fly! The majority of the paragliders were now either airborne or were preparing launch. The hang gliders had now lost their enthusiasm as the wind had dropped, but I decided as it was getting lighter, to set up my glider and get a flight in!

My wife had opted to tag along, so assisted me to launch. As soon as I spotted a hole in the paraglider traffic I launched and was able to seek a little bit of lift straight away. The wind was more northerly than forecast so the northern end of the pub hill appeared to work as did the bowl. Getting to the bowl was a bit tricky with all the paragliders but eventually I was able to cross to the Truleigh ridge. A high performance hang glider (100 feet higher), and myself then worked this part of the ridge together. I saw a gaggle of birds circling and concluded something must be lifting, but as I made my way towards it, the lift switched off and I was forced to make a dash back to the safety of the main bowl, albeit, slowly getting lower and lower. I eventually submitted and realised I was destined for another bottom landing.

The landing approach, as ever, was interesting as I flew over the trees and watched rabbits dashing around beneath me. When I was low enough I set-up and landed with a 2 step landing (it was nil wind). As I looked back up to launch, I saw that the paragliders bad begun to slope land and two more hang gliders that had launched, were now slowly sinking towards me in the bottom landing field. It looked like a sink cycle had begun!