David W enjoying spring conditions at Bo Peep 5th April

Whilst rigging up at Bopeep on Wednesday 5th April 2006 the other pilots, who had been there all day, were complaining that it had looked like a really good sky at 10.00 a.m., but had then blued out. I assured them that, on days that look 'cracking' at Bopeep in the early Spring, you often get a dead patch in the middle of the day when everyone is going down, despite the wind feeling soarable, and that by 1.30 p.m. there would be usable thermals, as long as the wind is still 15 knots or more.

About 1.15 a pilot took off into rough air and flew at not much above ridge height for a few beats before managing a few 360s in lift before being dumped out, when the right wing hit sink. We could hear him shouting something about 'rock and roll' from the ground. He top landed shortly afterwards and complained that the air was too rough to be enjoyed. Dave Massie opined that West Firle would be better as he reckoned that the wind was a bit northerly. I didn't think that it would make any difference as, on days like this, it is just the same on the Ditchling ridge.

Dave took off about 1.35 and, after a few beats to the bowl and back and a little height gain, crossed the chalk-pit and got to the Trig point, where he seemed to be soaring comfortably. I took off at 1.45, into a bit of rough lift, and only gained 100' before it felt like it came to an end, so I quickly top landed after less than 3 mins. in the air. There were no visual cues to the lift( where had the birds gone), so the next time the glider became buoyant on my shoulders, and felt like it was being pulled forwards, I took off again at 1.53 into a rough bit of lift, which I worked, with difficulty, for 5 mins., gaining 300' ; at one point I did see a leaf on my right and climbing, but I was already settling into a right hand 360, so it was just reassuring. When this lift ended I headed towards the bowl and turned left, into lift, in line with the field boundary just before the bottom of the bowl. I gained another 1000' in 5 mins. in this lift and when it petered out I headed back over take off and towards the Trig point so that I was positioned downwind of a line of three good looking clouds. Still at 700' above take off, I headed upwind towards the first cloud and spotted a sailplane thermalling at 3000' under it, in a large area of lift. I headed straight for the sailplane, dolphin flying and losing no height, but before I got under it, I hit some lift that was so strong that I couldn't resist circling in it. I stuck with this lift to cloudbase at 4800' ato., where I could see three seagulls 1000' below. It was rough and scrappy, so there was a lot of adjusting centre of circle and changing direction to achieve an average climb of 3.3 knots ( I did manage 5 knots for three minutes). It was very cold and I was shivering by the time I got to 3000', in spite of winter gear. By the time I got to cloudbase I was over Seaford golf course and I headed north east under a line of clouds, dolphin flying again, and only lost 2000' by the time I got to Drusilla's, 3 miles upwind. Sara and Alexander (my son) were in Drusilla's and I got my mobile out to tell them to look up, but the safety line was too short and I couldn't see to dial. I flew out to half way between Drusilla's and the Arlington reservoir in buoyant air, occasionally stopping to 360 and then more of the same to in front of take off and to the Trig point. I was cold and it seemed to take a long time to get down for a top landing in little wind, after a flight of 53 mins.

Mark Ts, view on a couple of incidents at the Dyke 4th March with punchy spring thermals

I saw the first incident at close hand as I was thermaling above Fluckinghill around 12.00 pm when I saw a white wing about 100 foot below and upwindof me in a spin, about 100 - 200 feet above the hill. I didn't see thestart of the spin, but watched the pilot rotate 6 or 8 times, while I wasthinking shit, if he doesn't take corrective action (let off inside brake,apply some outside brake, let the wing dive and start flying again.. orthrow the reserve) I'd be watching a death, or (as a doctor) would soon beknee deep in a major accident. Just as I was totally convinced he had hadit (as the next 360 degrees would have him swung hard into the deck) thepilot partially corrected the rotation and the wing dived and began to fly -and almost simultaneously he hit the brow of the hill, at the edge of thetree line, but apparently at an angle to the slope, reducing the force ofthe impact, and the wing went into the edge of the low tree line. The pilotwas on his feet straight away and gestured that he was OK, which was anenormous relief, and I think then had a very long job of picking his wingout of the bushes/trees.

Although I did not see what started it, the thermals were pretty frisky (dueto the bright sun, cool air, and high lapse rate - latter I had littledifficulty getting to clodbase at 4,700' at the Ditchling end of the ridge,and had to try quite hard to get down)). I suspect he may have been circling (or starting to circle) slow in a thermal with quite a bit ofinside brake, and had a collapse in the outside wingtip flying out of theside of what at that height were often small bullet cores, and overbrakedthe inside wing to compensate, stalling the inside wing and entered the spinthat way. Did anyone see the start of the cascade, or is the pilot on theforum and able/willing to comment.

After that I flew along the ridge to Ditchling a couple of times, and byabout 1.00pm found the thermals rather better formed and more obliging upthat end. Once at cloudbase I could see everyone else had landed (otherthan the HG's, a gaggle of which flew off north into the distance from aboveDitchling, and had helpfully marked one of the thermals I used to get upinto the cold), so I guessed windspeed on launch had risen. Penetration wasstill not a problem further up, so I had fun flying about with the sky tomyself until desperate for a pee and had to come down after a couple ofhours airtime, at around 2.00pm . By then although top landing was noproblem it looked too windy lower down to really have much fun flyingagain(plenty of lift, but gale hanging), so called it a day.A pretty classic spring day - exciting but potentially dangerous.

R. Chester-Nash, Firle, 5 April, unexpected sea breeze

Yesterday's sea breeze came (for me) surprisingly late in the day (5pm at
Firle) and looking at the shoreham trace it didn't go back round to the
North (at shoreham anyway) until almost midnight. From what I've read the
times of arrival and retreat seem a bit unusual especially given the time of
year. One for you to comment on please Ian.

I was up at the time but due to my inexperience I didn't recognise the
signs. It was early evening with no obvious curtain cloud. The wind on the
hill died and Dave Nickels had the forethought to hold up the windsock and
highlight what was going on (big thanks). Seeing that launch was not the
place to be I pushed out front of the SE bowl and found heaps of smooth
lift. Looking back at launch everybody was down and looking my way! It was
still smooth lift so I went with it for a short while as I flew further out.
I didn't expect such a late sea-breeze and the darkening cloud above and
slightly West of me looked too scary (for me) so I pulled big-ears, ran away
and landed. A few minutes later I felt the sea breeze coming down from the
hill behind me. Thanks to the hangies who watched me down safely and to
Windy John for the lift back up. Having just missed it himself he was keen
to explain how I could have read the signs (smooth lift away from the ridge,
all the other clouds of 'acceptable' size etc) and how I could have gone
with it and then followed 'streets' inland. Maybe next time! After hearing
what it was like for those that top landed I was happy with my decision and
that I got down safely. I'll take this as my warning from the sea-breeze
beast.

Details
Wind Direction and strength North then South?
Glider.
Vario.
GPS.
Max Climb.
Max Sink.
Distance.

De Aar 02 December 2005 wind W 10MPH

Hi,

I hope that all is well back in blighty and that the cold snap has abated(if not coming home is going to be horrible!). As promised here is my second and last update from de Aar, I doubt I will fly again tomorrow as my back is a bit knackered and after today so am I!

Well, I have now been here since Monday and unfortunately after my first message, the weather turned nasty for a couple of days... However,yesterday was better again and i managed another 30KM flight, but cloudbasewas significantly lower and getting to 30KMs really proved a battle.Today, the forecast was for stronger lift and higher bases, so i expected that breaking the 50KM mark would be a doddle, it wasnt! I got away on my third tow this morning and climbed up about 1000M above launch and then found nothing more until i got a very low save behind some trees by a farm about 10Kms from launch, i then climbed back to about the same height and drifted off down wind unable to find anymore lift and landed at about27KMs. I was a little disappointed, but at least felt that i hadn't fallen out of any thermals...




Arnold picked me up and as we drove back to De Aar, the sky looked really good especially a little further downwind than where i'd got to....So rather than going home, we headed back to the airfield and after 4 tows with no lift (that I found), I finally took off into a fast moving thermal that was bubbling along the ground, but not really releasing. I was told to stick with it over the radio and eventually it let go. Initially the lift was very broken up with half a turn in lift half a turn out, a quarter in strong lift, 3/4 in zeros, this went on for what seemed like an eternity,but eventually everything calmed down and the thermal increased in diameter and strength and took me to 3000M AGL.

Fortunately, as the wind had increased I was now covering the ground at a really good pace. I headed off on my first glide around where i=B4d had my low save on my first flight! Being in De Aar meant that i immediately found some impressive / depressing sink5.5M/s, but fortunately with 3000M to play with it didn`t matter as i bombed on downwind at 70KM/H + and eventually found some more lift.At that point everything got ridiculously easy, cloudbase was now at over5000M and the cumuli were no more than 4 or 5 KMs apart, so i just went jumping from under one to another for around the next 50KMs, I then started to get a little low, but another farmhouse provided a nice trigger, with the thermal taking me back to just over 4000M.

Up ahead was a growing cumulus,but it didn't look too dark so i pottered under it and into a slightly snotty 2M thermal that then developed into a large friendly 4.5 M per second thermal... I circled up to 4300M and then headed off on glide again with about a KM of cloud still ahead. This turned out to be a good decision as by the time i reached the edge of the cloud i was almost atbase with 4850M reading on the vario / GPS. By this time my back was starting to hurt and i was aware that i had been in the air for over 5 hours today, I therefore decided that even if i foundmore lift, i would not turn in it. I then just aimed to fly under the clouds ahead and found one absolute cracker, but feeling sure i must have broken the hundred KM mark and bearing in mind my previous self decree,didnt take it.

Instead i just carried on gliding downwind. After what i would guess was 25KMs id burnt off all my height and landed safely by the road, with Arnold on hand to take me home.

Stats
Max speed 75KMH
Max Height 4850M
Max averaged vario 5.5
Max sink 5.?
Collapses - several minor, 1 x big full frontal aka (why i am i in freefall=)followed by a thump and a thwack and all was back to normal, not that thiswas worrying as was over 4000M at the time!
Straight distance 134KMexpected OLC 139KM. Again today, there were bits of snotty lift, but being so high above theground it really didnt matter. The frontal was a result of trying to go as fast as possible with no pressure on the breaks (my fault).

As a winters flying destination it really is fantastic, Des and Arnold do everything possible to make you feel at home and will cater for all levelsof pilots (they train pilots from scratch here) and touch wood, have neverhad an accident with a student or guest.

Fly safe,

Richard
Track http://www.paraglidingforum.com/modules.php?name=leonardo&op=show_flight&flightID=1161