Light Winds at little Bopeep - 30 April 2022

Once I tried to get a parking spot in the car park, I realized that I had made a big mistake. Not only were there loads of paragliders, ramblers, horses and horse boxes, dog walkers and no parking spaces. I then understood that it was a Bank Holiday weekend, so everybody was out enjoying the nice weather.

Looking to the East I could see many paragliders already in the air. My rule of thumb is that if the paragliders are up my Wildthing would struggle.

I met Martin J, Kevin M and we walked Westwards and found a nice spot to launch from. Martin, being a more accomplished flyer than both of us launched first with his Wildthing and managed to keep it flying in marginal conditions. I tried to see if my Wildthing would fly from further up the slope but found it to be unresponsive. So, I decided to change models to my Ahi. Kevin had an attempt at flying his Wildthing but only managed to get it over the fence and down the slope it went, into the gorse.

Both Martin and Kev went to recover the model, no harm done. It was noticed that in excess of 24 paragliders were up at any one time but did not encroach anywhere near us. My Ahi for some reason did not fly well and probably needs looking at. Kevin did not have a go with his Lidles special glider, maybe next time. Nick V arrived at the slope after a session with the dentist. He brought along his Tiny Seagull an Eliminator Pylon Racer and the Whisper. He enjoyed some flying, but the conditions were challenging to say the least.

Martin launched his Carrera glider which flew very well. However, upon landing it suffered a significant crack along the top fuselage joint. Nothing a tube of glue and a clamp would not fix. In Summary, poor flying conditions for us slope soarers but some very good company.