The Fantastic Four go flying

D D wlks Steve J to the front for his first flight on his new wing, the other gliders wit patiently behind
Steve j looking good and nicely colour co ordinated

The Big guys discuss big things as grahm a gets ready to go

Graham gets airborne at the start of his first flight on his Sport 2

Graham A also looking good and also very good on the colour front as he soars past

Normally when someone gets a new glider we expect weeks of unflyable weather, so with 4 new wings arriving at the same time we didn't expect it to be flyable till Christmas, but that was not the case.

Perranporth was the venue and after an hour or so assembling the wings , setting up hang points and sorting harnesses I had the very pleasurable job of test flying all the wings in quick succession and very nice they were to.

The guys puled straws to see who was off first and Steve J (Oakhampton) was duly selected just as the wind dropped and swung off the hill. Still after a short wait he was off and had a super flight quickly settling into his Wills Wing Sport 2 / Woody Valley Flex combination. Doing well in the less than perfect conditions he put in a solid 30 minutes mixing it with some Paragliders before coming in for a very acceptable top landing in the alternative landing zone as the wind was by now a long way off. Big grin and thumbs up showed all was well and he loved the glider and harness.

Graham A (Torrington) was next on another Sport 2 / Flex set up and did a fine take off in to the dropping breeze. Still despite the weak lift he managed to work his way up and had a nice 10 minutes soaring and getting settled into the glider before the the wind moved off even further sending him to the beach. graham did a cracking landing right at the bottom of the dune so making the retrieve as "easy" as possible. 25 minutes later we were back on top and ready for the next one.

As it turned out Grahams delay proved useful as by the time Pilot x was ready to go on their newly acquired Wills Wing Eagle 145 the wind had squared up a bit and filled in again. They did a first class take off and were quickly soaring way above the hill in good lift. 15 minutes later and after looking very settled on the wing they came in and performed the best landing of the day in the normal place. More smiles and congratulations followed, 3 down and one to go.

D Derek was last off as the beach began to close in on yes you've guessed it, his new Sport 2 / Flex combination. Another good launch was followed by some classic soaring with Derek looking smoother and smoother with each pass of the ridge. 20 minutes and it was time to come in before we lost the beach and he made it down first time in an unusual style as near to the front as you could get on hi feet and without touching the glider on the ground, nice one.

It was a very happy group of Hang Glider pilots that packed away their new kit at the end of the day and all looking forward to the next one.

So good to see four new "Hangers" starting out on their flying careers and we as a school feel both proud and privileged to be involved with them, thank you guys and gals.....who's next?

Quote of the day " I don't mind having a short one" .................

Sorry not got piccies of everyone can't find my camera