Do you fly at The Long Man of Wilmington?

Slope Soaring at the Long Man of Wilmington in East Sussex

The Long Man is a well known venue for leisure and competitive slope soaring and works in winds from SW to W to NW to North. It is a scenically very  attractive location and is now a part of the South Downs National Park. All the flying slopes, and there are several of them, are on, or a short walk from, the South Downs Way, a national walking and mountain biking trail from Eastbourne to Winchester.

What many users of the slope may not realise is that slope soaring is only permitted under a licence granted by the landowner, the Folkington Estate. The other party to the licence agreement is the South East area of BMFA.

A quite substantial license fee is due each year which was mainly paid for by the South East Area BMFA, but because of the changes to the way Area is funded this is no longer an option.

BMFA SE will continue to be the licensee but all funding from this year will be provided by local clubs. These are the East Sussex Soaring Association (eastsussexsa.co.uk) and Sussex Slope Soarers (slopesoaringsussex.blogspot.com). Consequently, all model fliers outside of these clubs will need to buy an annual permit for £10. There are details of this on the BMFA SE website (southeast.bmfa.org).

So if you want to fly at Long Man do join one of the local clubs or get a permit, Both clubs have very modest annual subscriptions.

The Long Man has been a slope soaring site for at least forty years and we all need to make sure that it continues to be so.

Ray Wells

Secretary, East Sussex Soaring Association

February 2020