Judith writes: We had been checking the forecast for a few days and decided it would be much better in the Peaks. A chat with Andy confirmed this, so we got up early and drove up to Derbyshire. We were obviously on to something, as Kai and Dave T. aslo headed north to Bunster and David T. headed down to Parlick from Scotland. The sky was pretty poor most of the way and Helen didn’t think it look very promising, but as we got closer to Eyam, it cleared and cumulus started to organise itself into nice streets. We wondered about the wind strength, but Paul, a local pilot, launched first and seemed to be having no problems with penetration.

I launched second and vowed to go over the back as soon as I could, since the weather was due to deteriorate and because Eyam isn’t a ridge to hang around on. It has something of a reputation amongst paraglider pilots. I had never flown it on a PG before, but have a lot of experience of it on a hang glider, and never had any issues at all with it then. I flew along to the pub and bimbled about a bit before spotting a bird thermalling out front. I connected with the climb and was off. Geoff, Helen, John S. and Denis W. rushed off to follow me, but didn’t get into the same climb, so I went on my own. I lost the thermal as soon as I was in a position of not being able to get back, but hunted around successfully and got it again. The climb was strengthened by some lift kicking off the lee side of the moors behind Bradwell.

The climbs didn’t seem to want to go to base, so I went on glide to Stanage but realised I wasn’t going to be able to make it onto the ridge, so flew to the little rocky escarpment in front of the parking. It worked well and my next climb took me past Stanage and over the moors. I had looked at the airmap planning to head NNE or NE, so had studied the Upton corridor and RHADS airspace, but stupidly, I hadn’t looked closely at the airspace further to the west. My plan had been to fly over Sheffield, or even to try to keep east of it and that would put me in the perfect line for getting past RHADS. Once over the back, the thermals were drifting me N or NNW and I was getting further and further away from Sheffield. With each glide I tried to get back east, but each thermal would drift me back off course. Once Stocksbridge appeared on the GPS, I knew I was in a bad place. I remembered something about Stocksbridge being a problem, but couldn’t remember what the issue was and I couldn’t get to my airmap to check. I spent most of the flight circling, so couldn’t get to the GPS to check it easily either, so in desperation I radioed John to ask him, but he was in a tricky place and couldn’t respond.

I made a final dash east, but it took me to a decaying cloud (that seems to be happening to me a lot these days!) and I went down. I wasn’t actually where I thought I was. I had zoomed out on the GPS, and thought I was near the 3500′ limit, whereas I had actually managed to push more east and landed at High Green, NW of Sheffield and only a few miles from where I went to college. However, having looked at the airmap, had I let myself drift with the thermals and gone downwind, this would have headed me straight for Leeds-Bradford airspace. It really helps to know an area!

Once on the ground, the front caught up with me pretty quickly and I learned later that John landed somewhere very near me and Helen made it to close to Barnsley, 5km further downwind. Geoff came for me and we picked Helen up on the way to the pub. Nice to see her and Simon and we spent the evening with Andy and Denise. So nice to catch up properly with old friends.

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