Perranporth

Whistle stop 1/2 day tour of Cornwall rounded

up with a quick visit to Perranporth.

Light to nil wind blowing across the slope...

the natural habitat of the Alula.

poor man's Buzz Lightyear

 

a quick preflight assessment reveals that...

as demonstrated by the locals; landing out is not an option!

best stay in close...

soar the slight twitching of the grass...

and dream about summer!

floaty firle

Well it looks as if Boris has spared us all from another lockdown, but

that in itself may not be enough to save his skin.... that's politics

dealt with, now onto religion and that most scared of  faiths; the soaring of the slopes!

The eve of the last lockdown (Nov 2020?) saw an average of 3mph wafting

up the face of Firle Beacon. Floaters were dusted off and the congregation

congregated optimistically!

the camera batteries died, so we improvised with a

pin hole in an off-cut of Solarfilm

this looks like it's at the cutting edge of extreme floatiness....

it's so black and floaty, it generates its own thermal allowing

for over unity soaring

luckily Dave found his near invisible, nano tube wing joiner

after a long search in the grass 

Eric has brought along his venerable Four Thirds

Eric's happy to play the role of footstool

 

elevator linkage was a bit non-cooperative IIRC

it spontaneously tries to ascend vertically again, but Dave keeps a firm hold

and with the 4mph gale, it's at the top end of its performance bracket

and then all of a sudden, we're falling like flies....

and then it's on the hill again, just so the parachaps can have a

good chuckle at the retrieval crew!

the more sensible among us don't get involved in the walk of shame!

Looks good for tomorrow (Thursday) people, 

come and get stuck into some airborne rubber thwacking! 

.....most importantly, have fun!

combat 2020

 

to be confirmed...

 

till death us do part...

Most of us out there are wedded to the hill, but some

are wedded on the hill.....

I wandered lonely as a cloud....

...or to put it another way, Billy-no-mates session on Tuesday afternoon.

Pretty much naff all wind (1 to 3 mph) but as this cloud passed over the hill (see photo below)

 the air was filled with widespread, super smooth lift right up to cloud-base if required.

A blissful 45 minutes before the full-on misery of winter sets in!

guess where...

 

silky smooth air and golden autumnal sun

....you must be able to guess it from this one surely?

nicely trimmed bush

 

Grabbing the last few evenings before the utterly pointless exercise of turning the clocks back.

The face of the slope was getting a bit of a trim....

Alula vs farmer

....made for a well illuminated de-rig area

in the dark!

Storking...

Continuing the animal related theme ( I promise we'll get back to rc soaring some time soon ).... spotted over the North Downs today...

(world's worst photo of birds in flight)

I give you from left to right; 1 crow, 1 stork and 1 buzzard.

The stork is likely part of a reintroduction programme from sites in Sussex and the Cotswolds. FYI it was not carrying a young baby.

Once common in the UK, it's believed they were partially wiped out during the Civil War when they were seen to be representative of freedom! Since then, hunting and habitat loss has contributed to their terminal decline.

They are still common over in Germany, Portugal, Spain, Ukraine and Poland where they migrate to breed during the summer.

Prior to 2020 there were no records of nesting storks since 1416.

Approx 20 are sighted every year in the UK, and in 2020, a pair bred in the United Kingdom for the first time in over 600 years.

They are excellent thermal hunters, so if you see one.... stalk it!! (see what I did there?!)