Hang Gliding at Cordon Hill

This was another of Clive and Ozzie's tour weekends. Faced with the prospect of travelling after work on the Friday evening during the end of week rush hour Cara and I opted to get up at 5am on Saturday and travel then. The destination was a small village by the name of Lydbury North in Shropshire. Amazingly, it only took us 3.5 hours to get there (and that was driving legally).

Arriving at the campsite at 8:45am we met up with Clive, Ozzie, John and the rest of the tour followers. After breakfast we travelled to the first possible site (Sarn) but on arrival the wind was too far off to the east, so we opted to look at Corndon Hill, a site that is good in north and north-easterly winds.

I recall from the sites guide that Corndon Hill requires a bit of experience to fly and arriving at the bottom landing field I could see why. Every field in the area is crisscrossed with pole mounted electricity cables and they bound the designated bottom landing field. For me, the only problem with the bottom landing field was its distance from the takeoff; I wasn't convinced my glider would fly that far so opted to sit this one out (I later measured on a map that it's a 1:7.5 glide from the top to the bottom; my glider is best 1:7+ glide; a good call I think!).

My conclusion on this was shared with others in the group so some pilots with lower performing wings opted to travel to Llangollen to try their luck there (hindsight was this was the better choice!). Cara and I decided to stay and film and photograph the remaining hang glider pilots.

A short while later after returning from a local village, Cara and I set-up at the bottom landing with a picnic to pass the time. Conditions we not perfect at the top and it was well over an hour before the first thermic cycle hit the hill. Steve, Ozzie and Clive launched into this and made some good height gains before the lift vanished.

Eventually, all with the exception of John headed towards the bottom landing field – John was fortunate enough to land next to his car at the top of the hill ready for another brew of tea.