Arran gets the dry slot between the weather fronts

July 26, 2007 on 12:38 am | In Paragliding | No Comments

 The Sunday Post took to the skies.

A good weeks flying on Arran luckily escaping the rest of the UK’s  extreme weather.

Fortunately the flyable conditions coincided with a group of students going through their club pilots licenses, whilst some others had  just begun their training.

19th, 20th and 21st July an Easterly soaring wind up the String road on the higher hill.  

Small flights practising, take-off technique and slope landings. Vicki did her first phase of training before rain stopped play on the 20th. 
Marrick from Poland and Katarina from Latvia had their first small flights on the 21st.
 

Pilots worked on technique. It is important to load your weight on the harness.

 Lean forward and put your centre of gravity outside your body balancing the brakes with your arms back and relaxed.  Control is very important. The wing must be stabilised and checked with the pilot feeling the wing. Looking ahead and staying on the wind line during takeoff.

Ian’s new Bolero 3 wing and Plus Max helmet (Certified for air sports and skiing/snowboarding.) Andi and David discuss.

22nd and 23rd July - westerly wind, good thermals soaring at Dereneach.  The students climbed in their first thermals.

Scott from Aberdeenshire on his new Airwave Sport 3
Tuesday 23rd July : Catacol wind West/South West thermic and soarable all day.

Richie the photographer and Euan the Journalist came, they both had a Tandem flight Euan said it felt like stepping into a dream. The flying fever story should either be in this or next weekends edition.

Harry and the two Ians completed lots of tasks, top landings, assymetric tucks and big ears.  Visiting pilots Scot from Aberdeenshire’s club and Donald an Arran regular from London who plays Cello in the BBC Symphony Orchestra. 

David flew around on the new Mescal Skywalk wing.  The second hand wing he was planning to buy from another pilot has been sent down to Aerofix to test the porosity of the wing and strength of the lines.  (they purposely brake a line and replace it to test the strength.) They have said the porosity of the fabric is down to 6 seconds and at 5 seconds they advise not to fly it.  One set of main lines needs replaced but they think its not worth spending the money on it as it is near the end of its flyable life.  I waited till the end of the day to tell him so as not to spoil his flight.

All second hand equipment should be tested before you buy it (Or have a test certificate that is within the year) or the bargain you pick up may cost you either financially or with equipment failure.

Another wing I had had for a while an extra light weight one failed its airworthyness test.  It had hardly any hours on it but it was old in years the fabric can deteriorate even in the cupboard.- another wing for groundhandling only on the beach.

Zabdi Keen
http://www.flyingfever.net
Paragliding instructor and tandem pilot and run a paragliding school on the Isle of Arran and in Nepal. New mother overcoming the challenges to continue being in the hills with my new baby.

Soaring at Catacol, Isle of Arran 11.7.07

July 18, 2007 on 11:58 pm | In Paragliding | 2 Comments

The skies looked a bit grey but we had seen from the satellite pictures the cloud was clear to the west. So we told folk to get on the ferry and come over and give it a go and we would see what the wind would bring us.

The forcast was for a West/ South West wind so we headed up to Catacol at the North end of the Island. With paragliding you have to take off into the wind so Arran gives us an ideal training ground with hills facing all directions.

Out with Flying Fever school we had David who was doing his club pilot course, he is from South Africa and is staying the summer on the Island working in a hotel doing split shifts and paragliding in between. He had decided to stay here and fly, turning down a higher paid job in London.

He started his paragliding training this year in June, he fininished his Elementary pilot in 5 days and continued with his club pilot, this was his 10th day flying of his CP. We had been working through his pilot task book of the British Hang glding and Paragliding Association we needed a good days soaring to get certain tasks signed off and this was it. David soared about for 3 hours completing 7 top landings,
Big ears (collapsing the wing tips to make a smaller wing and come down quicker) Assymetric tucks (you collapse one side to simulate turbulance and prevent the wing from turning by weight shifting away from the deflation whilst you recover it)
Pitch and Roll (simulating turbulance and how to recover)
Speed bar (altering the angle of attack to make the paraglider go faster)

He had done some of these excersises before but this day consolidated them and he completed all the practical tasks needed for his license and showed good control, he passed the theory exam the next day. He will still come out and fly with us as a club member whilst on the Island but he can also go out without an instructor present, it’s wise to continue flying with more experienced pilots while building up airtime.

Andi was also out today she is an air traffic controller at Prestwick and has been training with us in Nepal and Bulgaria the last two years but has not managed many days training in Scotland, because her training has been sporadic then each time currency is lost and we need to go over the tasks again and build up confidence and ability. It was her first days flying since last October.

She went a flight with Maurice to gain confidence and go through some of the tasks on the Tandem. Then she was up solo flying and did very well as we used the conditions to run through the tasks. According to the book she is up to club pilot level but because of the lack of currency, ground control and confidence she will continue flying with the school to build up her hours and proficiency.

Sandy from Inverurie was out on his second day of an Elementary pilot course he had been on Arran for a few days and had only managed one days flying because of the weather. We had persuaded him to stay for today in the hopes of getting him some decent flying. Maurice took him up for two soaring flights on the tandem talking him through his excercises.

The kids were with us and were running ferrel on the hill enjoying their summer holidays tumbling in the heather. Baby Kieran had his first ride up in his mac pack rucksack.

Air acts like water, a smooth breeze was blowing from the West with a wave forming from Kintyre that produced superb lift out from the hill. It was so good that Diogo (a visiting pilot from Brazil who is working as an Italian chef in Glasgow.) who was test flying a second hand wing started flying well out to sea and not descending - we were starting to get nervous watching him but he turned and came back in fast with the wind behind him.

When he landed he asked “How much is the wing?” “£400″ he turned away and came back and handed me a wad of cash with a grin! Then grabbed his helmet and took off again.

Zabdi Keen
http://www.flyingfever.net
Paragliding instructor and tandem pilot and run a paragliding school on the Isle of Arran and in Nepal. New mother overcoming the challenges to continue being in the hills with my new baby.