Paragliding Map

Tuesday 25 May 2010

Reward!


Well today I was determined not to stay in the house and I was desperate to make sure I eked out as much from the day as possible, so I packed a cool bag with juice, water and a snack of Cheese and TUC biscuits yum! and set off expecting an awful lot of sitting around and waiting.  When I arrived at the hill (about 10:30) I was pleasantly surprised to find that the hill was on! a slight Westerly wind and very nice constant wind was blowing and after 15 minutes of watching and assessing I decided to get my glider out and give it a bash!  No sooner had I laid my wing o the take  off than the wind died away to nothing and a few minutes later it was blowing over the back of the hill from the North!
Oh well I thought at least I was prepared for this!  I walked about the hill for a bit and decided to tidy up the mats as some of them had wondered away from their original positions.  Quick check of the wind and it was still off so I sat on the rock to the right of take off and it was then that I noticed the Harriers flying out to the ranges from Akrotiri.  I know it's cabbagey but I like that sort of thing.  a few minutes later there was a plume of water went up on the horizon followed by a whooshing sound hmm? the Harriers appear to be bombing the sea I thought!  and this made for about half an hours viewing whilst I waited!  Well I waited until 14:00 and had nearly decided to just go home when Dave arrived he took one look at the hill and said "well it's on the strong side but looks doable! you want to go first?"  I accepted and gingerly got my glider out!  It felt strong but with the added confidence of a buddy standing by I lifted up on my A's and found it very difficult to launch, as though I wasn't penetrating so I pushed my hands up as far as they would go and after a quick step to the left I was off and soon very high over the ruins.  Dave followed me up and played around for a bit on the Eastern side.




Graham turned up about half an hour later and I noticed Dave top land to greet him and they made their way to the sandpit to try out the tandem.



Graham was in a fairly good mood as he had finished for the day and is going home in the morning! I told him you're not home until the jet has landed in Brize Norton and then you're at the mercy of MT!


A good launch from Dave and they were in the air (briefly) I top landed and drove down to pick them up!  Graham had enjoyed himself but Dave was fairly nonplussed with his flight! he was muttering under his breath about the wind appearing to be good but it's just not enough mutter mutter!  we drove back to the top and Dave had a look to see if he could launch the tandem from the top but later decided against it as it was quite gusty there.  A quick walk later and a much better launch saw them back in the air for a reasonable 15 -20 minute flight!


I drove down to the bottom and picked them up again and then had a nifty 30 minute flight in very pleasant air before packing up and going for tea at Dave's house.  Cheers Dave and Elena!

Saturday 8 May 2010

Snatched flight!

Today was a mixed bag of conditions, Bitu and I had a look at Avdellaro in the late morning but after a very snaggy and messed up launch we decided that it would probably be better at Curium so we left Bitu's car at the cafe and drove on down.
When we got to Curium Dave had just landed after a short flight and told us that it was better than it had been earlier in the day but it was still a bit bumpy and we would have to work for it if we were going to stay up.  Eddie had just arrived and began setting up his hang glider and a few minutes later Tim arrived from the beech where he'd been since his earlier short flight.
Well the hill looked as though it could be picking up and Tim & Carlos set up and launched one at a time and were met with varying degrees of lift and all landed at the bottom after bumpy flights.
I launched and managed to get some lift early on, enough to get quite high over the top ruins and stay up.  Bitu and then Dave took off and we all flew about quite happily.  I think that we launched just as the hill had come on and managed to snatch the few precious minutes that Curium was willing to give today.  I managed to squeeze 38 minutes out of my first flight! which can be viewed on Leonardo (Here).  I didn't feel comfortable enough to snap any pics today as it required all my attention just to stay aloft.  still I have a couple of snaps kindly supplied by Tim and Lou who had sat on the beech whilst I was flying.  Cheers guys.

Friday 7 May 2010

New Beginnings

Well after quite a long absence from this Blog I have decided to resurrect it!  I've been having a few flights from Curium since moving to Cyprus late last year and thought I might as well chat about them!
The Curium Soaring Club based at Akrotiri, has a policy that all new pilots should attain at least 10 hours of flying, in varying conditions on Curium before they venture inland to the more thermic sites such as Stavrovouni and Dora.  This, I have been working toward and am glad to announce that I have now gained my 10 hours but have yet to fly any of the inland sites.

Well I'd like to show you photo's of my earlier flights here but alas I have misplaced them, I suspect they'll be on my other machine (I really must sort out the lan connection) anyway you can link to some of them Here as long as you're on facebook.

Well this year in Cyprus has been so far quite bitty and unpredictable as far as the weather goes.  The wind has been predominantly from the West and this is bad news for Curium which takes a more Southerly wind.  This has made for some interesting and sometimes surprising flying conditions.  According to other pilots on the island this year is the worst they've had in the last 5 years.  I can only hope it gets better as my obsession with the sport is growing and due to work and the continuing bad weather I haven't enough time to get to the hill when it's 'on'.

Anyway here are a few pics of me on my last flight.
I've got to work on my pose! 

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