Mick F does a classic take off
Mick trying the chest release for the first time
Coady a man at one with his "work"
Steve J follows Micks lead in take off technique
Steve climbs out in to the sunIt should have been a chilled day in the field with only a couple of hangers on both of whom were well into their CPC tasks however, in the morning they decided to keep me on my toes with a variety of antics. Mick F (Hampshire) was back and up for it making it look easy on the tow but keen on getting low on airspeed on landing approach resulting in some poor turn corrections and out of wind landings. Steve Jewell (Oakhampton) made it look tricky on the tow but was nice and smooth off it (most of the time) so between them we could have made one good pilot!
One who shall remain nameless fell into the old trap of twisting whilst trying to turn leaving him short of height on approach so removing some growth from the top of the hedge before performing a remarkably good landing, time to stop for lunch.
A theory session settled my nerves then we were back at it and things got better. Soon both pilots were converting to the chest release, sorting out prone flying and looking good with landings into wind near the windsock. To make things better Pilot X joined us and put in a quick 100' release flight before heading to the top of the line on a hang glider for the first tow. What a tow it was pretty much like an arrow up to around 600' releasing into buoyant air followed by a lovely flight down and good landing.
Mick and Steve both got a go on the Calypso, unfortunately Mick suffered a line break half way up but did a fine job of sorting it out but Steve took it to the top and had a cracking flight and landing enjoying the gain in performance and lightness of handling.
All's well that ends well and that it did, two more hang glider pilots on the verge of completing their CPC's, who's next??
One who shall remain nameless fell into the old trap of twisting whilst trying to turn leaving him short of height on approach so removing some growth from the top of the hedge before performing a remarkably good landing, time to stop for lunch.
A theory session settled my nerves then we were back at it and things got better. Soon both pilots were converting to the chest release, sorting out prone flying and looking good with landings into wind near the windsock. To make things better Pilot X joined us and put in a quick 100' release flight before heading to the top of the line on a hang glider for the first tow. What a tow it was pretty much like an arrow up to around 600' releasing into buoyant air followed by a lovely flight down and good landing.
Mick and Steve both got a go on the Calypso, unfortunately Mick suffered a line break half way up but did a fine job of sorting it out but Steve took it to the top and had a cracking flight and landing enjoying the gain in performance and lightness of handling.
All's well that ends well and that it did, two more hang glider pilots on the verge of completing their CPC's, who's next??
No comments :
Post a Comment