26 January 2022

25 January 2022

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!



13 January 2022

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!



29 December 2021

Looks good for tomorrow (Thursday) people, 

come and get stuck into some airborne rubber thwacking! 



.....most importantly, have fun!

27 December 2021

10 November 2021

till death us do part...


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

are wedded on the hill.....




03 November 2021

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!




31 October 2021

guess where...

 

silky smooth air and golden autumnal sun









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


25 October 2021

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!