Cooking tonight

On the menu tonight - Lamb Vindaloo
Brown some onions and chillis (fresh green)
Add the lamb and the masala - Garam Massala, ground ginger, ground turmeric, ground garlic, salt, tomato pure and ground chilli.
Fry slowly then add wine (1/2 bottle, drink the rest ;-)) and some water
simmer 30 mins
add chopped potato (small pieces)
simmer for 25 min
serve with rice
EAT!!!!!!!!!!!
Mmmmmmmmmmmm

Hello Slovenia! We going flying??

As I type we are in Kobarid in Slovenia. This is the location for the British Championship round 1 due to start on Sunday 6th. We arrived last night (Sunday) after a nightmare drive. We tried to save money by taking the back roads to Slovenia instaed of the motorway (toll roads)- BAD mistake!
We were soon crawling up and down some of the steepest roads I have ever seen - would be great on a motorbike but it was almost too much for the underpowered camper van to take! The poor thing was subjected to miles of crawling up hills in first gear then the same on the way down, stopping every 10 minutes for the brakes to cool down! Not fun and slow!
The weather here looks like it will be flyable tomorrow so we are trying to see if we can get a lift to a take off tomorrow. Most of the information on the websites seem to say 4x4 to get to take off.
Fingers crossed......

Visit to the British Team in Austria

Friday we dropped in to see the British Team who are in Abtenau in Austria. They have been waiting for favourable weather to compete - so far just one valid task (won by Luc Armand, the R10 designer!!) from a week of waiting.
The team were all in good spirits despite the weather which has varied between heavy rain and light rain. Boo! The one task was not great for the team, finishing 10th in the rankings is not where they deserve to be. A mishap for Russel Ogden saw him having to return to a turnpoint, Adrian Thomas is stuck on a serial class wing while waiting for his Advance competition wing to be load tested (another victim of the weather), Jamie Messenger was ill with blood poisoning!! The rest of the team performed well with Mark Haymen coming about 20th, Neil Robberts close behind and Kirsty Cameron making goal....
My heart goes out to the team, waiting in frustration for the weather conditions to improve enough to fly some tasks. Fingers crossed, we are rooting for you!
BUT, looking at the weather forcast for the following week we bravely fled south on Sunday!!

24/5/10
Woke in the campsite at Neufchateau to a CLASSIC looking sky. Shower, breakfast and a check of the internet showed no sites nearby which take a west (the wind direction that day). We packed and a quick bit of shopping.
Driving out of town we could not help but look at the sky – amazing.... hang on, what’s that? A paraglider! Don’t know where he set off from but he was high and flying up wind (!). Could not believe it when we could identify it as another R10!! Can’t get away from them!
We set off for the French border and a westerly site at a town called Fumey. On route we passed a guy walking with an Advance paragliding bag. He had obviously landed after an XC (cross country) flight. With nowhere to stop on the fast bend where he was walking I carried on. Another 300 meters along and ANOTHER paraglider pilot was standing in a garage forecourt hitching. Now I’m a firm believer in Bob Drury’s ying and yang theory of paragliding – what goes around comes around – so I pulled over and offered a lift. Surprise, surprise he was going back to Fumey! My conscience had me firmly by now, we loaded him and I turned the van round, drove back along the road to the first pilot and picked him up too!
So, van full of hitch hikers off we went. One of the guys said he had been hitching for two hours with no lift! Ouch, been there... not nice. It is a shame people are so scared that they cannot lend a hand – I’m sure they would if their heads were not full of ‘News of the World’ style horror stories. Rutger Hower in ‘The Hitcher’ probably didn’t help the cause much either!
We drove to Fumey and parked the van as close as possible to the take off. One of the hitchers told us to jump in his car and soon we were driving the track up to take off where he gave us a full site briefing and introduced us to the remaining local pilots (see, ying yang!)
It was late by now (we are not good at early starts) and windy. We waited for half an hour to let the wind drop and I was first of the waiting pilots to take off – straight up at 4m/s! ‘So, it’s still working then!’ The wind did not drop off much more and was too strong for Wendy to feel comfortable to launch while I flew a small triangle round the area in strong bumpy conditions.
Good day out and at the right site for the following days predicted weather (west again)
25/05/10
Woke to blue skies with cirrus coming in. We went to take off and sat there all day! The west wind swung north before the sun came over head enough to get the thermals going, then the cirrus shaded everything out. Doh
The evening saw the weather deteriorate and thunder and storms arrived. Oh well, we have done well so far chasing the sun.
26/05/09
We woke to a rainy day - time to move on again. An unsuccessful search for wifi left us with no real idea of where to go so we are heading toward Austria to meet up with the British Team who are competing (or trying to – weather permitting) in the European Championship. Wendy is driving and I am catching up on the blog on tyhe laptop with the aim of updating the blog when we can get on line. Will keep you all updated on the competition when we get there. Germany this evening, just hope the camp site is still open when we get there or it will be a night of wild camping.

Paragliding Belgium style

Hooray! We flew!

Beauraing, a long low (70m top to bottom) ridge courtesy of Paragliding Earth (great website). Got the co-ordinates and plugged them into the tomtom, easy as that!

Hour and a half soaring and thermaling. Tops. Now back at the camp site with a beer.....

Hard life!!

Chasing weather

In Belgium at the moment, near Neufchateau in the south. We are holding offf heading to Austria - all the weaher forcasts show it being nice here and rain/storms etc in Austria!
We have been enjoying (too much) of the fantastic local beers and enjoying the fantastic sunshine. Todays plan to move on has been scrapped because;

1. weather here is great
2. weather in Austria is rubbish
3. campsite has free wifi
4. there are flying sites near (MASSIVE 130m high ;-))

So just waiting for Wendy to finish work then we are off to see if we can find some aviation! Fingers crossed.........

Bye Bye UK

Finally we are off - ferry Dover to Calais Friday morning. From there we cross Europe to arrive in Abtenau, Austria in time to cheer the British Team on in the European Championship.
The itinerary is then Slovenia, Greece, Italy, Portugal Spain and finally France! Phew...

Departure Delayed!!

......no, not due to the volcano, due to the fact that europe looks like it will be underwater for the next week!

Ferry is now booked for Friday!

Oh well, have to find somewhere to fly that is not a 4 hour drive. The joys of Essex.....

Good day out at the Mynd

Saturday 15th May I woke with a very heavy head (birthday the day before !) The weather forecast was showing it possibly too windy to fly but early - early? what I mean is when I dragged myself from bead with a fuzzy head and a dry mouth! - where was I, yes early signs looked good. Wendy and I jumped in the car and headed to the Mynd. Whilst stuck behind a tractor we saw some paragliders thermalling and gliding over the back of the Mynd on their cross country flights. Hmmm, could be good - are we late?
We arrived at the hill and dragged ourselves to take off just as a large dark cloud floated over. Spitting with rain I left my wing happy and dry inside the bag.
Thankfully the rain passed, the sky improved and the glider came out of the bag. The fickle wind kept dropping off to nothing, disturbed by thermals as I had a little play ground handling (STILL a difficult task) and doing little hops. Landing for a chat I timed it perfect to see the entire world take off and climb in a huge thermal! The wind picked up and I had to launch in a 'fresh breeze'.
Soon up and away (cracking 3.5m/s climb out) I flew over the back, through a thermal with Barney Woodhead, shouting hello to him on the way past.
Huge area shaded and downwind saw the less cautious pilots on a long glide to the ground. I hang back and kept high as the clouds decayed and allowed the sun on the ground....
Off again, gliding cloud to cloud I waved goodbye to the other paragliders at about 30km down wind, only seeing sail planes etc after that.
Thermals varied in strength but I spent a lot of time circling in poor lift and skirting round the edges of clouds at base, not really paying attention to wind direction but just trying to chill and fly the clouds.
I was hungover, cold, tired, and oh, did I mention I have a bad cold at the moment? Wendy says am I sure it's not Man Flu! ;-) (that's the last of the moaning - promise!) but just kept the mantra of 'one more glide, then maybe a thermal' going as the KM clocked by.
Then, towards the end of the flight I became boxed in by airspace with just the narrowest of corridors between the Oxford Airport ATZ and an adjacent restricted area. Low and gliding round the cylinders I could not believe my luck when I connected with a climb right in the middle of the gap! I climbed approx 2000'whilst drifting through the gap!! Result!
That turned out to be the last climb. From there I glided to Oxford, had a look around then set out down wind to maximise distance.
Landing=result!
Landed in nice grassy field next to a plant nursery. Whilst packing up I was whistled over by a grey haired guy taking his granddaughter for a walk. I had thoughts of the traditional lecture from farmer scenario but it turned out the man was called Richard, an ATOS Hang glider and microlight Pilot!
Packed up, Richard drove me to his friend Andrew's house (paraglider pilot) were I was plied with fresh coffee and Ibuprofen!
Wendy arrived half an hour later and we headed home, stopping for a pub meal on the way.
11:00 - arrive home
11:03 - in bed
11:04 - zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Grand day out!

Flight;

Total Score 154.32k
Date 15th May 2010
Start 13:03
Finish 17:58
Duration 4hrs 55mins
Takeoff Long Mynd
Landing village SE of Oxford

For more details see;
http://www.xcleague.com/xc/flights/2010832.html

First flight on the R10.2

Drove to Wether Fell after dropping the camper van off for its MOT. Arrived about 11:30. It was windy - the top end of the launchable wind speed for a paraglider. Weary of the reputation of the gliders demanding launch characteristics I got it out of the bag for the first time, laid it out, checked the lines, connected up and clipped in for take off. The wind was very strong - watched Burkit Rudd lifted off his feet and launching backwards on his Gradient Proto! Mike Cavanah was also there with another R10.2 and he too was having problems before even clipping in when the wind took his glider and tied it into a nice bow tie for him!

Clip in, gentle pull on the centre A's, Glider coming up nicely then big asymmetric so I killed it. Tried again, another big asymmetric but this time I fought it and kept the wing up and cleared the collapse.

Straight out up and straight up! Flew around for a while soaring and taking some light thermals then used the performance to push forwards under a cloud and climb to base. Mike had finally launched and came to join me. I left the climb at base and flew away waiting for Mike to gain height then returned to join him. Were off....

Tried holding the B risers and active flying with them, with and without bar. Seems to work well but when a big surge forward came the instinct was to come off the bar (will have to work on that!)

We scratched and scraped out of the Dales over the moors, most climbs were poor but we were reluctant to leave them as we were not in orbit and tracking over remote moorland.

The glider was solid throughout.

Summary of my initial thoughts on the glider;

• The brake travel feels fairly light compared to my previous wing (Icepeak XP)



• The handling is superb, I'm surprised such a high aspect ratio wing can turn so nicely!



• The speed bar is super light



• the flex in the wing seems to be at the tips where the A lines cease being split onto separate tabs and the 'span tape' reduces from 2 strips to one as in the pic ->



• performance is good but no idea how good - the only glider I could compare against was Mikes R10.2!!

So, a grand day out with no drama (except the lousy launch characteristics)

see http://www.xcleague.com/xc/flights/2010720.html?vx=10 for the flight details.

Back to packing now!!!!!!!! ;-(