Blackmount - 25th April 2009

A bad forecast (low pressure, warm sector) with a big risk of over development but plenty sun tempted me, paul m and bob g up to black mount near glen coe. I had a total lack of psyche for flying and was content to let the others have several attempts to stay up in light thermic air on the e face of black mount (winds were getting pulled all directions by large clouds). Clouds were big in places already and there seemed to be plenty of mid-level instability.

As I set up after 40 minutes of sunbathing a huge gust came up the s face of black mount which made me think about launching that way but after standing with the glider above my head facing e to feel the air for a bit i took off and followed the wind round the hill - it was now blowing steadily up the n face!

Bob and i got some height and he made the move over the back at the right time while my lack of psyche continued and i landed down near the car park with the burger vans and the piper overlooking loch tulla. Quite happy to be on the ground i avoided the road and tramped the few k back to take off via deer tracks to find a rather red faced paul who had locked his car keys in his boot!

Only one thing to do! Hitch to meet bob g at the pub in bridge of orchy leaving paul to wait in the rain for the AA man. It was very pleasant sitting on the verandah with a beer listening to bob's stories of the 12m/s thermal he left after deciding conditions were a bit much!


typical warm sector clouds


gonna go bang sometime...

bob overdosed on two half pints as we waited for paul and had to have a senior moment in the car on the way back...

Ben Lawers to Glenshee - 19th April 2009

First of all, hats off to Julian for flight of the year in Scotland (again!). As he said on the phone from the pub where he was clearly several beers merry "we flew into Knoydart [half day walk out if you are lucky] and then we flew out again!". A big plus for RASP which predicted the best thermals for that area and a brilliant flight. Luckiest pilot i know!

We followed the hordes down from glencoe to ben lawers and after an hours walk up I spent at least 25 minutes sorting out the bracken clusterfuck that i had collected the day before in my lines. The thin lines on the xc2 love to tangle...


sorting out my lines in a sheltered spot as trias and another glider explore the south bowls


david t up and away

Meanwhile Trias was up and away with a few tip rustles and andy b scared the crap out of me flying the lee side of the spur and taking both hands off to get into his harness when only 10m up... David T was up as well and i chuckled as he rose up to my level from a take off lower on the spur exclaiming "f**king hell" as he rose erratically in the slightly leeside air (high level air was coming in from WNW as shown by the cracking cloud on the NW side of the mountain but at low levels the wind was WSW)

I waited for a good thermal and when i felt a cycle coming up the Tarmachan side of the spur launched and climbed out immediately without having to go near the anabatic lee side flow in the sunny bowls on the SSE face of the spur.

Apparently others were not enjoying the sporty conditions and there was radio chat to this effect which prevented some taking off. Ha! one of the advantages of not having a radio! I guess I wasnt in the same air as some because none of it felt even uncomfortable to me.... A push forward after the first climb got me into a climb above chris who had just taken off just after me and soon we got to base and headed downwind almost due west taking a little of the white room on the way.

I used the white room to push n over the main ridge and this got me a much better line than chris but it didnt hold him back much as he found a good one from lowish over a lee bowl a glide later to get back in the game. That put us both at base under a good cloud peeking out over the wide valley at the e end of loch tay which heads past the village of Kenmore.

Chris was in pootle mode not wanting to venture into the huge blue hole but i was impatient and went for it unaware that david t (as i found later from his igc file) had gone a similar route and we both got a weak climb off the bump in the middle of the valley (drummond hill) just past kenmore.

Disgusted at my move into the blue, chris was eventually forced into a route along the high ground on the n side of the valley and he found a bit of lift as he got level with me. Having climbed a bit i now had enough height to make a move a couple of k n to connect with the same spot and it was one of those unfair ones where i was high enough to get up but chris was low in the disorganised stuff and couldn't climb.

From there I made a bold move over the high ground covered in forestry to the n of weem hill - it was a necessary step to get back to the clouds and I eventually got a slow but good climb off the convergence cloud over farragon hill (slightly nw met wind meeting southerly anabatic). By this time i was aware of an inversion around 900m and a very distinct shear layer between the more northerly upper level winds and the lower winds at maybe 1200m.

It was definitely slow down and circle mode as the climbs were weak and it was impossible (for me) to stay in the same core through the various layers. Drift was as low as 10kph at times now in spite of being 20+ at take off but by being patient I had good height to cross the a9 over pitlochry. Although i was very tempted to push nw to a great cloud over ben vrackie (thats what decked david t) the clouds were cycling so fast i decided i would be better to head for wisps due e where there was more ground clearance.

Although that worked short term (for the next couple of glides) I got suckered into following wisps more and more se which i eventually realised were not true cumulus but the edge of the sea breeze front. My last glides were approaching the Drumderg windfarm still going due e but the windmills were showing wind on the surface due s and when i got low in the glenshee valley I was pushed north in the sea breeze for a k or so before landing (65k ish)

If only I had pushed NW earlier (would have been tricky... it was quite blue there) i might have been able to connect with the sea breeze convergence at glenshee proper where the air coming up from tbe braemar side meets the southerly flow... and flown over lochnagar.

Next time!


landing spot in glenshee after squeaking over power lines to avoid landing in a sheep field


the remains of the sea breeze front which suckered me too far south

Ben Toaig to Glencoe - 18th April 2009

More good weather and off to Ben Toaig near Bridge of Orchy for a SE wind predicted with bob g, trias, chris c and andy b.

Good thermals but with climbs going to only just above the peaks limited the early action as we flew across to join a large horde taking off on the se spur of Meall a Mhuridh.


weak looking clouds during the walk up ben toaig


bob g setting up

Eventually we headed down the coe with Al Brown but failed to follow him on a better line to the cloud forming to Meall a Chrulaiste (?) next to the Kingshouse so bob and i bombed near the Devils Elbow path while chris' typically bold move down the n side didnt work either.

From there we walked up and took off again with bob getting a fine climb out from just above my head to a freshly forming cloud street and proceeded to do the out and return along the aonach egach while i bombed again (it was that kind of day) and then walked up in a sweaty rush.

Eventually i laid my wing out at the level where bob had climbed out to see paul m (northumberland) climbing out at the same level as me only to find true dispair as my seemingly nice grassy take off had lots of tiny dry bracken sticks only 5cm long which tangled so badly in my lines that i was unable to take off!

I had to walk down - flying along the aonach eagach remains an unfulfilled ambition!


looking e to meall a chrulaiste and the kingshouse and the street forming due to e winds and strong sun on s faces - the street was even better the other direction along the aonach egach. this grass patch proved impossible to take off from...

Balquidder - 12th April 2009

A nice day out with a good turn out of Scottish pilots in Balquidder but RASPtable was right and conditions were damper and weaker in the central highlands than further south where the hangies reported the best day at tinto in 25 years.... Good to be in the mountains again after all the Englandshire flying.

After a frustrating hour i finally got to base but flopped over the back for about 10 or 15k. Julian did better with about 40k along to St Fillans past Ben Lawers but we didnt hear yet where Stu and Roj got to... Here are some crap video clips but I suppose they give an impression of the site for those who don't know it

Whitestones to near Newcastle - 11th April 2009

Yet more good flying doon sooth as Scotland was too windy for the friday and saturday of easter long weekend. i met jules, adrian s and trias in keswick in time to steal some of their chips (ughh.. gravy on chips should be banned) before showing them the secret camping place ... not so secret anymore.


jules breaks camp in the morning

We wanted to go somewhere different than parlick although bobi s was there and said there were upwards of 30 gliders fluffing around in light air.

We ended up at whitestones just off the m6 maybe 30 or 40km n of parlick after some helpful confirmation from kitt r. I missed the chance to move to the next hill s to climb out with jules and after some messing about i eventually climbed out in rough thermals with a blue mantra (dangerous dave) and went for a sinky glide over the complicated terrain behind. I drifted in bouncy zeros for as long as i could before a long sinky glide out onto the flats and a heathery moor which gave some hope. A last, last move sideways got me into a small valley/ravine when i was only a few metres above the level of the surrounding moor. A rock scarp on the far side facing almost into wind and as soon as i got there i knew there was a climb out.


or watch in HD here

The tricky first glide decked jules (twice) but sean and tim j got a bit further as did adrian s. Following my low save the flight got easier with entertaining cloud to cloud flying until a weaker section before the end of the pennine high ground as the day blued out. Patience and endless drifting in zeros got me high at the right time and I was able to make good progress between the better clouds on the flatlands again with base now up to 1800m.

The end of the flight was interesting as the predicted alto cloud sheet over the e side of the country was receding in front of me and a southerly wind (we realised later) was pushing up the east of country to meet my southwesterly creating a beautiful convergence zone along the coast. I was faced with either trying to go north to hexham to avoid newcastle airspace or going east to slot the gap between newcastle and middlesborough. I chose the latter and it was probably the wrong decision esp as i was 10k further north than i should have been.

That evening we headed north again and wild camped near gladhouse reservoir in the borders not far from the moorfoots which as it is a bird reserve was a bit noisy. During the night we had oyster catcher, curlew, snipe, peewits, owls and in the morning the geese, blackheaded gulls, various duck, woodpecker and the skylarks joined in.


jules objects to me "accidentally" setting off the car alarm in the morning


another frosty night snug in bivvy bag


gladhouse morning

Parlick to Kettleburn - 5th April 2009

Well one week on from our first trip s and the scottish horde found another forecast with winds too high in Scotland but really nice post cold frontal conditions in the north of England.

After picking up a demo harness from chris s (a light pod at only 3.5kg ava x-alps) I camped with chris c at a lovely wild camping spot in the Lakes (right beside the car this time). The moon was only half full but it was so bright that it kept me awake for several hours. We walked up from our camp site in the frosty morning light to some awesome views of the lakes and my 2.5 seconds under the local waterfall sufficed for a rather bracing morning wash.

Jules, Trias, Paolo and Scott came down from Aberdeen after staying in Biggar overnight and after meeting up at Shap there was the usual "oh shit we are late" dash down the motorway to Parlick again.

As we walked up at about 12 we could already see the first gaggle of about 6 gliders heading over the back but it was heartening to see steve e and marra were also late. When we got in the air there was an extended shadowy period and nobody was getting much height. The air was buoyant though and long glides out front to look for thermals were the order of the day. Gradually a sunnier period came along and i just managed to stop myself leaving with chris c in a reasonable thermal before the sun arrived and hence found myself in good position to join steve e and marra who were climbing well out front in the first of the sun.

Soon i was committed over the back but the lowest of the three but we all found individual bitty climbs coming from the heathery bowls for the first few k with steve e doing a lot of pimping above me and marra.

On the first proper glide I was confused to see steve e and marra heading s of downwind to an open valley well to the sunny side of what looked like a nice cloud over the high ground and kept to my own line for a bit but heavy sink persuaded me that they knew something i didn't and i scuttled sideways to where they were now maintaining in zeros in the valley which looked like a distinct improvement over my 3.5m/s down. In retrospect, base was still low that early in the day and it may have just been ground clearance they were going for.

Now well below the other two i was forced to run downwind over down going terrain towards a reservoir (same reservoir in pics from last week) and was relieved to pick out a nice core which boosted me up to the other two but not before they had spotted me and pimped again.

Even the strong cores were weakening and spreading out as they approached base and I've noticed before that I am rubbish at climbing in weak stuff. My temptation to bank it up in the surges you get in a wide core or a series of linked weak cores doesn't work so well and the energy conversion of steve's awesome 7.5 (?) aspect ratio comp wing and the wide flat circles he was flying were leaving me for dead in the top few hundred metres.

The next climb was straight forward over a huge felled area of forestry on a col at the end of the valley leading up from the reservoir and finally I was up level with steve. It was marra's turn to be low as we glided on towards Ingleton and again i was confused by the messing about (perhaps as steve e waited for marra) as if on my own I would have blasted straight on for the next cloud over the high ground.

Unfortunately I missed the next good climb that steve got - he got ahead after finding a lifty line along the back end of a cloud well below base while I was distracted by working a weak thermal and keeping an eye on marra below. That left me with a long glide over high ground in sink towards hawkswick (a popular dales takeoff) and i ended up diving over the back of it in wind that was now about trim speed or just above to try and catch marra climbing in the next lee/valley. However, that was a bit of an optimistic move considering the distance i was below him and the wind strength and I ended up pinned on the next ridge leading up to Great Whernside above the village of Kettleburn. After an uncomfortable 10 or 15 minutes trying to climb out in very rough air (big surges and 90 degree yaws at times) which was possibly a bit of mild downgoing wave from the ridge in front. Wind speed was more than trim speed during the gusts and soon I decided now or never and went with a rough one but was unable to get more than a few partially lifty turns in before the hillside climbed to meet my ineffective efforts and I landed going backwards up the gentle slope pockmarked with hundreds of 5m diameter craters which I decided might be old mine workings.

So, a bit relieved to be down safe but rather unsatisfied with the end result (50k). Well done trias (75k) and jules (70k) who got away a bit later from take off but ended up several valleys further n and to marra (80k) and steve e (114k) who threaded the danger area and the middlesborough and newcastle airspaces perfectly.

Overall the flight was frustrating as i had learned the week before the importance of being high as you approach the end of high ground and also frustrating as i felt i had followed the other guys rather than flown my own flight. On the other hand it was good to fly with two top pilots and reviewing the flight in SeeYou against steve e's tracklog i didn't do a whole lot wrong.

Retrieve was entertaining as dave s (a local dales pilot) picked me up and then responded to a desperate plea by ali g (for it was he) and turned round and drove me 10 miles back at Ali's car back at Hawkswick. I then drove his chip oil powered diesel to Sedgefield between Durham and Middlesborough and he returned the favour by taking me past his home in Hexham and on to Carlisle where i caught up with chris c and my own car again. Home by 10 so not too bad.

Julian's write up is here
Track log is here