We had to stay in to let someone view our van this morning, so we left our weather assessment until we could actually get going at 12pm. By then reports were coming in of SW at Bache, off to the west at the Gyrn and perfect conditions at Clatter. Despite the howling wind in the garden, and en-route to Clatter, it was light on top. Phil and Phil from the Pennines had been up and said it was rough and scratchy and they hadn’t been able to get more than 400′ above.

The sky just got better and better, but repeated attempts to get up were unsuccessful, until Phil W. managed to get up and away. Martin tried several times, but at one point got flushed and went down. I had a punt, but had hooked my speedbar round my chest strap. I unclipped one of my leg loops to undo it, but didn’t have the height to clip it back in. My leg loops form my chest strap, so undoing one means I basically flying way outside the recommended chest strap setting. I had two choices – bottom land or try to scratch back up and top land. I know the dangers of having too wide a chest strap and I also know how rough Clatter can be and that it was really stupid not to do my pre-flight check more thoroughly. Landing just below the plantation is very tricky and you need to be able to be in full control of your glider to position yourself properly to get over the trees and along the slope. I decided that the better option would be to scratch back up and top land where I would have no obstacles and could bring the glider in more easily.

So many accidents are caused by a lack of pre-flight routines and by rushing. There isn’t a paraglider pilot who can claim never to have taken off with something on their equipment not right (even if it’s just a brake handle wrapped around the risers), but I find that about every 40 hours I get a little complacent with my pre-flighting. A state I need to guard against better. The only reason I have got away with it is that the shallow, grassy hills of the UK are very forgiving and mostly let you top land. Still, it goes to show that however many years you’ve been flying and however many hours you get in a year, you never get immune from making mistakes. (Note to self… must try harder in future.)

Anyway, Phil W. got 20km and said the clouds were not working as well as they promised. Martin could have got away, but came back to the front and Geoff and I ended up in the bottom landing. By then the clouds were building much better, but we were hot, sweaty, bothered and hacked off with the day. The only thing to cheer us up was the thought of a really nice cold beer. And that’s what we did!

Went to the HG comp HQ later to catch up with old friends. They had a good task. 118km from Bache to Crewe, via a turn point at Welshpool. A handful made it, while 30-70% (depending on who you talked to) went to the bottom landing. It was a bit off there.

The BP Cup was cancelled for the day due to wind. And yesterday the crazy scoring continued. Everyone got one point, regardless of how far they flew. Go figure…

Geoff writes: it was a difficult day. We usually get away quite quickly from Clatter, and we were taken a bit by surprise at how hard it was – three of us bottom landing at different times, extremely unusual there. On the one occasion Martin got high, and I was underneath him, the climb got weaker and more broken, and we were put off by Phil’s report that the sky was less good than it looked, and so we came back to the front hoping to step up a bit higher before committing ourselves to going over the back. This was a mistake, we should have gone, since we didn’t get that high again. In reality, the day was less good than it seemed, and given that the majority of the hang glider pilots didn’t get away either, that kind of proves the point. However, those who did get high and got away did good distances. It would probably have been easier if there had been more people at Clatter – it is usually a great XC site, but one that not many people go to. 

See photos of today.

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