Yayyyyy I finally went flying

Saturday was a lovely, bright day but very chilly. I had couch to 5km coaching duties to perform first thing in the morning but my afternoon was free and with a good breeze forecast from the north I couldn't waste the opportunity to go flying. So at about 12:30 the car was loaded and I had a 1 hour drive up to Hirwaun Common, my preferred northerly slope. I much prefer this over the VR98 at the Bwlch as the lift is usually better and the landing zone too.

Upon arrival there were a group of lads from Bournemouth and Bristol already flying and, shortly afterwards 3 local lads turned up as well as my friend Chris, who had seen my Facebook post and decided to join me rather than go to the Bwlch.

I decided to begin my flying by lobbing off the fully ballasted Balistik, and I absolutely loved it. This model was going like a rocket and I was having a whale of a time flying it. Later on I flew it again with Chris's M60 and I was pleased to see that the Balistik appeared to be a little faster 😊

I'd also taken the big L213A and had a couple of good flights with that. This flew well and will in fact fly in any wind speed from 15 mph but, it really comes alive in 30 mph or more as I have discovered when flying it in 40 mph plus at Rhossili. I have some changes that I want to make to this model so hopefully I will get a chance to do this over the winter.

So all in all I had a cracking few hours flying and, at the moment it looks like I'm free to fly again next Saturday too. Hooray 😃.

Weekend flying forecast 27th-28th October - Brrrrrrr

Happy Friday fellow flyers, another weekend is upon us. Our weather is changing with northerly cold winds from the Arctic heading our way, but with it are wind strengths that mean is is finally worth a trip to the slopes. So let us see what we have in store.

Saturday - a dry day with some sunny periods, 7°C and the wind beginning north westerly but turning northerly by noon and 13 - 23 mph. Your slope choices would be the Ice Cream slope at the Bwlch whilst it is NW and then moving over to the VR98 when it turns northerly. Meio can also be flown on a NW but will be off slope when the wind changes to north. My recommendation however would be Hirwaun Common which has slopes facing in both directions and only about a 2 minute walk between them. This is a fab slope if you've never tried it.

Sunday - a sunnier day with temperatures of 10°C and the wind NNE or NE and 15 - 28 mph. Your slope choices will be the Wrecker at the Bwlch, Meio which also has a NNE slope or Fochriw. Fochriw is my favourite of these three as the flying is great, as is the landing zone, with the added bonus of being able to warm yourself in the car between flights.

Unusually I am including Monday here as my good friend Paul of Slope Soaring Sussex is visiting Wales and is looking to fly. So Paul this is what Monday looks like.

Another bright, sunny day with temperatures around 8°C and the wind 13 - 25 mph NE. So you have the same choices as Sunday, the Wrecker or Fochriw. You could fly Fochriw on Sunday and the Wrecker on Monday as that is closer to home for you. I hope you have some good flying.

I have a window on Saturday afternoon to fly so I think I will head up to Hirwaun Common with the L213 and the Balistik .

So whatever you're doing, have a great weekend and keeeeeeeep flying.