Rough as a badgers Ass

Most forecasts suggested strong winds and decent thermals and that is exactly what we got at Sourton. On arrival it was a couple of mph the wrong side but this settled after an hour to an average 16 to 20.

After a rather ropey take off I flew for an hour in thermic but very rough conditions. The turbulence was quite extreme on the edges of the cores which were very small and punchy and it was difficult to turn in them as 3 circles would have had us over the back and committed with the wind strength.

I felt a little uneasy in the air and was having to work quite hard to keep the glider stable above my head, so much so I had to land after an hour to give my arms a rest.

As a gluten for punishment I gave it another go some 30 Min's later to find conditions exactly the same so sacked it after getting a pasting and landed at the car!

Pilots waiting it out, a wise move

Self portrait over Sourton Tor

As high as I was going to get.

About a grand above launch

Dartmoor Wave

Once the sky cleared, which took a good few hours, I took a trip to Cox Tor to check out the forecast light notherly.

On the drive up I passed a number of lenticulars which did not bode to well and on arrival the wind was gusting 10 - 20mph at the bottom of the hill, while back in Plymouth there had been very little wind, typical Dartmoor Wave day and certainly no flying!

Following our flight last Wednesday the gliding club observed some wave formations which may explain the rather bumpy conditions we flew in. One day one of us is going to get blasted into wave orbit over Dartmoor.

Back in the fold

Yesterday, Wednesday I think (jet lag still an issue) Matt and myself went for some afternoon soaring at Beardown and very good it was although a bit off to the north, still works OK mind.

Anyway the air was a bit turbulent but to our surprise there were numerous thermals coming through. These were very small and punchy and up to 350ft per minute, in winter as well, Dartcom were registering a wind chill of minus 5.7 degrees c. This just confirms again that its worth bearing the winter cold to go thermalling.

No pictures, managed to leave the camera at home.

Cuba......bliss

Pure Paradise, temperatures in the 90's everyday, amazing beach just 2 minute walk from our ocean view room, great snorkeling, the ultimate chill, if you ever get the chance go!!!

Picture perfect

View from our hotel

Our beach bar

My Dorado, caught while deep sea fishing - what a fight

Julies dream come true

Our spot on the beach where we spent 12 days

Come fly with me

Sun Sea and Sand

This will be my last post for a few weeks as we head out to Cuba this weekend for a well needed holiday in paradise with no Internet or phones, bliss. Just Julie, the beach,  snorkeling, swimming with Dolphins and cocktails!

And when we get back spring should be on the brink,  Lovely...............

Our beach

The only hotel in the bay - nice

Scratchy

Clouds were streeting and it did not look to windy, game on I thought but on arrival the wind was very light at Beardown averaging 10mph.

I launched anyway and it was a struggle to stay up and the weak thermals hard to stay in with little height gain. 40 minutes and 100ft ato was all I managed before Matt arrived and the wind died completely, so much for the increasing forecast. It was nice to practice thermaling again and proves it is worth the trip to Dartmoor, even in deep mid winter! Sorry Chris B next time!

Nice cloud streets, but impossible to conect with

Tick off the list

More mild weather and a gentle westerly flow in mid winter means just one thing, our old favourite Polhaun Cove.

It has always been in my mind to jump forward from the Cove onto Rame Head proper and fly over the Chapel on the pinnacle and today turned out pretty perfect for the attempt.

On the third try I managed to get into the first bowl around from Polhaun with about 20ft to spare, I was not to worried as there was plenty of beach within a downwind dash. Once over the rim the lift was incredible in the strenghtening breeze from the 200ft shear cliff below and I was able to fly right out to the Chapel, over the Coastguard station and gain some 500ft ATO.

I did not hang around long as the wind was really picking up so went off to top land, easier said than done, if there is just a hint of lift my M4 refuses point blank to go down even with big ears and I did not fancy a spiral in such strong wind so chose a ploughed field and ended up landing going backwards.It was no problem in the end and a good landing considering, the brake travel is very short so it does not take much to stall the wing.

Cornish Bill, first man off

View from the first bowl on Rame Head

Rame Head Chapel on the point

The church a little closer

Flying at Freathy

Mild conditions still prevail over the UK with a balmy temperature today of  13 degrees c and south westerly winds significantly lighter than the last couple of weeks.

Freathy had been on all day, so I rigged and launched into about an 18mph breeze and had 45 minutes before landing at sunset - how long will this weather hold?

Launch

Dull and overcast Whitsand Bay

Urban flying

Well what an afternoon, Freathy was blown out, it was raining on the Moors but a little site on the edge of Plymouth rocked. But only for 5 minutes before the drizzle set in.

You may be wondering where, well its not a million miles from Mount Battern!!! However launch is very difficult and there is no bottom landing most of the time. This is certainly not a place for the masses!

Post Christmas flying

Flying windows these days are getting few and far between and bloody short as well. For such a dodgy forecast there was a good turn out of pilots, Tom D, Cornish Bill, Artist Terry, Torbay Mick and new pilot Darren S.

I had a short flight early doors for 15 min's but it really was to strong so landed to assess the situation. Packing up sometimes helps and so it did, becoming nicely flyable for everyone to enjoy 45 min's or so, before it really did get to windy.

Bill charming the local cattle

Looe and Looe Island

Seaton village and Rame head in the distance

Christmas Flying

Its been a long time coming so more in hope rather than expectation I headed to Cox Tor for the forecast drop in wind speed this afternoon. On arrival it was gusting to 24mph but soon dropped off to reasonable levels after 10 minutes or so!

 Once up and away the air remained sightly gusty but with good ground speed once away from the middle ridge and with plenty of lift about, most of it a good way out from the ridge. This seemed to peak just above the cars at the base of the hill. All in all I had a smashing 45 minute flight in testing conditions, what a pleasure it is to fly such a competent and quick wing

The view out towards Brent Tor, the peak just left of centre and a possible turnpoint for a planned flight next year.

Nice riser and line detail on the M4

Cox Tor and Plymouth Sound in the distance

Crazy Winds

Winter

Well winter has definitely arrived with a serious lack of flying and a marked increase in beer consumption and nights out, not all bad of course apart from the increasing waist line ;-)

Still, I am looking forward to exploring Dartmoor wave and North coast sea thermals over the winter if the weather allows!

Today initially looked promising from the forecasts and even better in Plymouth this morning with bright sunshine and little wind. Unfortunately on the way to the Moors a few showers were apparent on the horizon and as the wind increased so did the rain. Ivor, me and Malc called it a day!

Downpour on the way to Cox Tor

Probably should have gone to Polhaun at Whitsand Bay to fly, but with stories from Dartmoor gliding club of strong thermals last Wednesday what's not to like on the Moors even in the winter.

Maker

Well I flew, that is the main thing!  (Sunday)

It really was to windy, probably 20mph, maybe a little more in the compression. Spent my time practicing spiral exits, which are improving and then having a rather rough landing approach (to say the least). Thankfully the actual landing was text book. But again great practice for landing out in windy conditions.

Lack of Tandem

Its been a while since our Tandem has been out of its bag, mainly because Julie has been suffering from Benign Positional vertigo. I am glad to say that the doctors manoeuvre Julie was given to complete has worked a treat and dislodged a bit of calcium that was stuck in here inner ear causing the balance issues, so she is now feeling 100%. Just need some decent weather, famous last words!

Sea thermals

I had not expected to be flying as the met office predicted rain so did not bother packing my gear in the morning. But leaving Newquay at 12 it was looking good for Maker which was a little pain as I had to drive home past the site, grab my gear and drive back again. That will teach me not to be prepared.

Anyhow coastal flying does not get much sweeter as the air was very buoyant with sea thermals, I took one climb to just shy of base off Mount Edcombe point and followed the Black Back Gulls around as they played in the now forming cloud street and was joined by a pair of large Buzzards also out enjoying the lift. Falling off the end of the street upwind of the cliff I dived back in to find the wind off to the east and getting stronger. The lift died as the stratus came in and temps increased so just played on the ridge for a while before top landing as the sun started to set, sweet

Climbing up with the best view in the world of Drakes Island and Plymouth

Fort Picklecombe

The break water in Plymouth Sound

Tom coming in to land



Show me the wave...

Its that time of year again, the sun is low in the sky and thermals are scarce which can mean only one thing - wave flying in strong winds.

Cox Tor did not fail today, I got there around 2.30pm to the sight of 4 modellers getting serious height. As I approached launch it was clear the wind was strong, in fact 16-20mph according to my gadget, a quick chat with the modellers confirmed there was lots of wave around and it was not to rough.

With the wind being very strong I rigged just below the main launch on the North side, popped the wing up moved back up the slope and was in the air before I knew it. Pushing a little bar I moved out front into the valley following a model and went straight up, literally. By this time I was off the bar and at min sink with no ground speed and just going straight up, definitely wave. I topped out at 500ft ato, although I missed the best of it, just half an hour before I got there the models were up at 1000ft - nice.

This is not the first time I have experienced wave here and it seems to kick in about half a km out from launch above the farm and is best in a NNE. Great flying for about 50 minutes before it turned off like a light. They say you learn something everyday, what I learnt is the feeling the wing gives you just before you hit the wave - sorted. More of this please

Looking towards Brent Tor

Heading into the valley, the lift started just before the wall

Shameless advertising and yet again the M4 was very well behaved

Eagle Owl

Great footage of an Eagle Owl in slow mo here

fruits of my labour

Spanish Naga Chilli

Cherry Bomb Chilli and our tailess cat Cookie

At last two Naga's and a bomb ready to eat

No flying - way too windy

Not quite connected

As the soundings predicted it was light at sea level and more wind the higher you got, so Cox Tor's south side was as high up as possible, unfortuntley it was still light but the clouds were moving at height. I had a few sweaty hops getting back on top once in very small thermals.

Matt arrived and we decided to fly off out front for a do or die flight, we found bouyant air with pockets of lift but to small to work at, but it did keep me aloft for 5 minutes but not able to connect with the bigger stuff. The sail planes at Brent did no better but good practice trying to stay up in the light stuff.

May be tomorrow's post cold front air mass will provide some entertainment ............................

Wave flying

By lunch time I had almost given up hope of flying down to the increasing wind speed, but after a call from Matt it looked good to go at Beardown. I arrived as Matt launched and zoomed straight up in strong conditions relishing his warm legs in his new pod.

Wasting no time I was right behind and soon we were both boating around the valley between 400 and 600ft most of the time, unfortunatly the sky had completely closed in but that did not stop embedded thermals coming through. Luckily these were not to strong to disrupt the wave coming from the hill in front, which was very smooth and extensive. The bowl here really does work very well mainly becasuse of the hill in front being in-phase.

The site has great potential and is one of my favourites to fly, it rarely fails to work if the wind is on.

Beardown Tor to the left of Matt

Looking down the river Dart

Matt looking the part

Looking good for the weekend!

Not so nice Maker

Maker was on for a short peiod Saturday morning just gone, however it was not particulary nice in the air. I have a funny feeling the air was actually easterly and the bowl at Kingsand was drawing the wind onto the hill making for a turbulent feel. I had 3 flights none of which got any better, it felt like flying in rotor at times, so I bottom landed on my final flight! The joys of a walk up a hot sweaty hill.

Mellow, mellow, mellow

What a lovely afternoon, the wind was light, the sun was out and 26 degrees on the clock according to my dodgy temp gauge on my vario. Flying in a t-shirt is always nice, but the one downside of my pod is a sweaty body, not very pleasant when sweat runs down the crack of your arse!

Beardown was the venue and how nice it was in the air. It took a little while to get up but once above 200ft it was all very buoyant so I cruised round the valley occasionally climbing out to 500ft plus. The thermals were large and mellow and a pleasure to fly in, made much easier by the performance in light conditions of my M4,

Bring it on, more of this please.....

Cruising the valley

Matt preparing to launch

Maker

Windy, sunny, warm, it was all of those things this afternoon and a bit off the the east at Maker, but I still managed to get round Fort Picklecombe onto the point at Mount Edgcombe and then on into the bowl around the corner, very satisfing.

The good weather looks to be continuing if not a bit to windy tomorrow, but staying in a coastal direction. No sign of a final xc of the year yet.

Also out enjoying conditions were Malc, Ivor, Jim and Tom

Out and return

Smashing day out yesterday, although pretty fresh conditions which put a few off. I did not measure the wind speed at Struddick as I rigged but knew it was right on the edge as over hearing a conversation it was 20mph plus. Consequently my take off was less than perfect, as the wing came up I tapped the break to stop it over flying and was immediately off my feet and facing the sea, oh well at least I was off and a little push on the bar saw me out over the sea and on my way.

Conditions were glorious with masses of lift under the cumulus generated by sea thermals, it possibly could have been a good xc day but base was low and 5k inland was completely overcast - it will happen soon I am sure. Anyway I flew east over Seaton and on towards Battern never really losing any height. In fact I did not start losing height until over the firing range at Tregantle Fort. Here I ridge soared past Freathy launch and onto the view cafe before turning and heading back.

A wonderful flight with great views and yet again stunning performance from my hot ship which never fails to surprise and delight me much to the annoyance of others I am sure ;-)

Seaton village

Heading onto Battern

Tregantle firing range and Freathy in the distance

Weekend looks wet and windy, so more painting for me and wallpapering for Julie, nearly done now Thank God.