Flying with Models

Flight 1

Finally, after the worst summer that I can recall, a potential soaring day and I had the day booked off work! Arriving at Bo Peep in East Sussex I was somewhat disappointed that no-one else was there. The wind felt strong, but within my limits so I walked to the top of the hill to get an idea of the true wind strength and direction. At the hill summit I bumped into hairy Dave who was with some paying customers intending to try a tandem paragliding flight, but after he inflated his canopy, he concluded that it was too windy and departed.

I was now on the hill alone so I slowly rigged my glider trying to avoid the numerous piles of sheep s**t but failed miserably. Once again I mounted the Sanyo Xacti C1 video camera to the right upright. At that point I noticed that a modeller pilot [remote control glider had arrived]. Out of courtesy I walked over and had a chat with him. He was very friendly and said he'd stay out of my way or land if it would be a problem. I then returned to my glider, erected it, performed a self hang check and launched.

The wind was strong and it was easy to stay above takeoff. After 20 minutes of beating back and forth along the ridge I saw a car with a glider on top headed for takeoff [that would turn out to be Dave M]. At least I'd get some company! During my flight I shared the air with some birds of prey. It's quite amazing soaring 200 feet above them watching them hunt. They didn't appear to be bothered by my presence.

The flight continued until a big black cloud developed overhead. Now my lack of experience showed here; I should have headed for the top landing but instead scratched around in the bowl, slowly creeping lower and lower. The aero-modeller saw me struggling and landed to give me plenty of room. I almost make it back up, but the lift simply wasn't there and I ended up bottom landed!

As usual, I carry my glider bag with me so was able packed up in the landing field. I left my glider in a bush then began walking back up the path to takeoff. During this time Dave M had launched his Litespeed and was making the best of the now light conditions.

Once back on top of the hill, I returned to my car, drove down to the where I'd left my glider and recovered it ready for a second flight. By now, Tony N had arrived [I'd phoned him earlier to warn him of my flying intentions] so we both rigged our Targets. Dave M. had now landed as the wind had dropped off and paraglider pilots had started to arrive.

Flight 2

Tony launched along with some paragliders and happily scratched around. I short while later I joined him [again with the video camera, but this time pointed at something more interesting - see edit below]. This time it really was a scratchy flight. 3 paragliders were flew in the bowl [this seemed to be the best place for lift], so made it a little awkward to manoeuvre so I mostly stayed clear of them! After 9 minutes of scratching around I made my common mistake of flying too far from the hill and ended up in the bottom landing field again!

As I packed my glider a familiar face pulled up in a car alongside the landing field. It was the aero-modeller I'd met earlier. He'd taken sympathy for me and realised I was destined to walk back to takeoff for a second time and decided to offer me a lift. I gladly accepted.

Back at takeoff the wind was very light. Tony N had succeeded in top landing and Dave M was considering flying his paraglider. It was now time for me to head off as I'd a colleagues leaving do to attend.