The longest day dawns bright and breezy, and gives us the perfect opportunity for
a pilgrimage to the birthplace of uk soaring....Itford Hill!
a pilgrimage to the birthplace of uk soaring....Itford Hill!
The first point of note relating to Itford is that you need to issue a road
traffic control order to the local authority if you wish to unload your car and
stand any chance of not being involved in a fatal road traffic incident
right then, 3 hi-vi jackets, 20 road cones and 1 temporary traffic light system later
we have the models in a safe location ready for rigging
meanwhile Simon hits his emergency inflate button
a quick slash with a scalpel and we're ready
for the hike to base camp...
Then onto the summit. No oxygen required other than to
safely bypass Mark's regularly deposited (night before) chilli-con-carne
induced bottom burp clouds
Paul gets off to a good start and tries putting 11.1 Volts straight into his 4 cell
nimh pack. The resultant smoke cloud sends the fire brigade out from Newhaven.
no-name new friend takes no prisoners and shows us all how it's done by jumping
straight back into the saddle after a 25 year lay off.
Not with a foamie (you should note) but rather a brand spanking new 3m (plus) scalie!
Not with a foamie (you should note) but rather a brand spanking new 3m (plus) scalie!
Pilot's on/off switch it right between his legs.
Could lead to some interesting quarter scale 'shunting'.
Luckily this was the only para-glider of the day
so there was no need to see everything through rose tinted glasses
...or purple tinted Oracover
Mark gets a stirring deep within his soaring soul....
"Right here, this is where it first happened
way back in 1922...." (swirling harp music and fade to...)
those early days set the standard for a landing
technique that Ray has been emulating ever since...
a bit of cyano and fibre tape and we're good to go again!
With Gary's help, we were hoping to emulate this historic event from 1930...
unfortunately Gary was otherwise engaged in a family do, where
he spent the day making polite conversation and trying not
to look longingly at the sky...
...added to that the fact he has sold his Wien,
so we didn't really stand any of a chance to re-enact
the historic event after all.
but that doesn't stop us dreaming........or taking unflattering photographs
or looking at half naked men
or dusting our transmitters
but just look at those cloud streets!
It's time to launch that exotic Y tailed machine and bust
some crazy moves slopeside!
Meanwhile Eric recalls that the actual first gliding event in the UK involved
some landed gentry type bloke trying to tow one of his servants into
the air with nothing more than an oversized kite. Perhaps we'll
report back from the location of that piece of history this time next year....
