27 / 08 / 2009 :: Milk Hill
| Name | :: | ian pepper |
| :: | pepsathome _at_ ntlworld.com | |
| Date | :: | 27 / 08 / 2009 |
| Direction | :: | South West |
| Comments | :: | Nice couple of hours with Pete, Tony and briefly Vince. Smooth thermic conditions, very low base. Increasing wind made take off unwise after about 11am, (a few late arrivals were disappointed) and top landings were out of the question. |
| Pictures | :: | http://www.tvhgc.co.uk/photo_gallery/ |
| XC League | :: | TVHGC :: National |
22 / 08 / 2009 :: Golden Ball
| Name | :: | Bob Johnston |
| :: | _at_ | |
| Date | :: | 22 / 08 / 2009 |
| Direction | :: | South |
| Comments | :: | Yes cloud base was low, about 2700ft I think. I do know that I got well and truely hovered in to one, about 400 to 500ft in and two spirals later I was still in it until I popped out the side by luck! As far as I know it was only me Tim Carr and a guy on a Airwave Sport that got away and we all landed a few k the other side of Marlborough as there was zero sun on the ground there, still it was fun to be out flying and White horse was wonderfully smooth later in the day with big sheets of lift coming of the fields. |
| Pictures | :: | http://www.tvhgc.co.uk/photo_gallery/ |
| XC League | :: | TVHGC :: National |
22 / 08 / 2009 :: Golden Ball
| Name | :: | Fi Burgess |
| :: | myself _at_ cloudbaseparagliding.com | |
| Date | :: | 22 / 08 / 2009 |
| Direction | :: | South |
| Comments | :: | Bit off the hill initially but plenty of lift by mid morning and fliers on GB, Milk and MHWH. Lots of fun and maybe some got away, although cloudbase looked quite low and murky at times. |
| Pictures | :: | |
| XC League | :: | TVHGC :: National |
18 / 08 / 2009 :: Milk Hill White Horse
| Name | :: | Steve Newcombe |
| :: | me _at_ hotmail.com | |
| Date | :: | 18 / 08 / 2009 |
| Direction | :: | South West |
| Comments | :: | A good day or poor day depending on your expectations. The good thermals predicted by RASP attracted many XC pilots, but it stayed cloudy all day. It was very ridge soarable all afternoon once the wind kicked in lunchtime (SSW), but difficult to get high. Some pilots were very happy, some a little disappointed. |
| Pictures | :: | |
| XC League | :: | TVHGC :: National |
16 / 08 / 2009 :: Milk
| Name | :: | Malcolm Beard |
| :: | highviz _at_ smartemail.co.uk | |
| Date | :: | 16 / 08 / 2009 |
| Direction | :: | West |
| Comments | :: | Two hang gliders and two rigids out on Milk Today. Conditions varied from breezy to barely enough to soar, and the clouds had very little depth to them. I eventually climbed out to base at 3000ft, but it was just a two thermal XC, to a landing east of Marlborough. |
| Pictures | :: | http://www.tvhgc.co.uk/photo_gallery/ |
| XC League | :: | TVHGC :: National |
13 / 08 / 2009 :: Combe
| Name | :: | Al Wilson |
| :: | al _at_ mrog.co.uk | |
| Date | :: | 13 / 08 / 2009 |
| Direction | :: | North West |
| Comments | :: | Beautiful sunny afternoon, very light wind, soarable in the weak thermic cycles. I arrived late and took off about 4pm - half an hour of circling later landed about 6km down the ridge. Walked halfway back and then got a lift the rest of the way from Mike Long - many thanks! |
| Pictures | :: | http://users.ox.ac.uk/~ball1439/combeaug13.jpg |
| XC League | :: | TVHGC :: National |
12 / 08 / 2009 :: Home
| Name | :: | Jonty |
| :: | jonty@somewhere _at_ | |
| Date | :: | 12 / 08 / 2009 |
| Direction | :: | North |
| Comments | :: | Talking of soaring - still have sore ankle after TVHGC party and slightly sore that I missed the climb out with Richard and Simon on Sunday but glad i had a good flight on the friday from Combe to Petersfield. Big apologies to Steve Newcombe for not knowing he had landed just behind me hang on XC league says you flew further than me?)- makes me wonder who else is waiting for me to reply to messages left on my old mobile phone? And finally - had a soar on Milk lastnight whilst the wind was racing over Rybury. Thanks to all who made the TVHGC Party such a good event regards Jonty |
| Pictures | :: | http://www.tvhgc.co.uk/photo_gallery/ |
| XC League | :: | TVHGC :: National |
09 / 08 / 2009 :: Rudlers
| Name | :: | Simon Twiss |
| :: | simon.twiss _at_ btinternet.com | |
| Date | :: | 09 / 08 / 2009 |
| Direction | :: | Other! |
| Comments | :: | Still feeling fuzzy after the party...Jonti pointed out the thermal - Richard and I exploited it - didn't seem quite fair somehow! Weak and bitty at first, but having waited almost 3 hours in no wind, I wasn't going to be choosy. Very black to the east, so random bimbling Devises way for an hour, then back to T/O. Doubted my wanderings equated to a submissable triangle (actually it did for 33k score) so found a working line to Liddington. Nicely made up for a duff Saturday. Thanks to Cloudbase for lending the site and to Fi, Jonti etc for an ace party. |
| Pictures | :: | http://www.tvhgc.co.uk/photo_gallery/ |
| XC League | :: | TVHGC :: National |
08 / 08 / 2009 :: Rudlers
| Name | :: | Fi Burgess |
| :: | myself _at_ cloudbaseparagliding.com | |
| Date | :: | 08 / 08 / 2009 |
| Direction | :: | West |
| Comments | :: | Still on a high from my first Combe XC yesterday, spent the day prepping for the TVHGC party in the field below the hill then we noticed the wind was backing to W, ideal. No vario but lovely evening air still felt lightly thermic and it was great flying over the "mini-Glastonbury" below and seeing all the cars arrive. There was even a spot landing (a Tesco bag!) which created some fun at the bottom. Then an epic party! |
| Pictures | :: | Coming soon |
| XC League | :: | TVHGC :: National |
07 / 08 / 2009 :: Combe
| Name | :: | James Learmont |
| :: | me _at_ my surname dot com | |
| Date | :: | 07 / 08 / 2009 |
| Direction | :: | North West |
| Comments | :: | Nice day at Combe as per Al's entry. I've uploaded video from launch below. Usual suspects feature: Sion R, Tom K, Carlo B, Colin H, Al W, Kirsty C, Chris J etc. If anyone wants a clip of themselves, drop me a line. |
| Pictures | :: | http://www.vimeo.com/6011818 |
| XC League | :: | TVHGC :: National |
07 / 08 / 2009 :: Combe Gibbet
| Name | :: | Al Wilson |
| :: | al _at_ mrog.co.uk | |
| Date | :: | 07 / 08 / 2009 |
| Direction | :: | North West |
| Comments | :: | At last a proper Combe day. A very promising forecast, and lots of keen pilots on site. It was soarable all morning, and pretty thermic, but base was low after the front was slow to clear, and many of us bombed out not far from the hill. Gerrit flew in from Liddington, Fi went XC and had a grin a mile wide, Mike Hibbit climbed out impressively at 5pm. Best distance was about 75k by Mark Watts and Hugh Miller. |
| Pictures | :: | |
| XC League | :: | TVHGC :: National |
02 / 08 / 2009 :: Rybury
| Name | :: | Colin Hawke |
| :: | _at_ | |
| Date | :: | 02 / 08 / 2009 |
| Direction | :: | West |
| Comments | :: | I climbed out with Kirsty Cameron but made some stupid decisions that put me on the deck near Coombe for 30km or so. I put a paragraph and photo on my blog http://colinhawke.blogspot.com/2009/08/32km-from-rybury.html You live and learn as they say but nice to get some flying in though :) |
| Pictures | :: | http://colinhawke.blogspot.com/2009/08/32km-from-rybury.html |
| XC League | :: | TVHGC :: National |
02 / 08 / 2009 :: Milk
| Name | :: | Malcolm Beard |
| :: | highviz _at_ smartemail.co.uk | |
| Date | :: | 02 / 08 / 2009 |
| Direction | :: | West |
| Comments | :: | Milk Hill to Ashampstead - About 60km. Milk was pretty quiet again as the hoards were on Rybury. Just me on the HG and two or three PG's. It's nice to have some markers upwind to show when the air is getting good! A flock of seagulls thermalling back into the bowl tempted me off the hill, but I was considering landing again until I saw the PG's climbing out from Rybury. A few went past until I found a decent climb over the west facing spur, then it was up to base and off downwind. With no retrieve organised (again!) I had two goals in mind:- 1)Get at least 40km to try and get the top spot in the national HG league. 2)Land where I could get an easy way back to the hill. Luckily my sister lives 50km downwind so that was where I was aiming for. There was a lot of spreadout down the valley towards Newbury, so I tracked north from Savernake to the M4 north of Hungerford, then ran parallel with it to my goal. Typically the sky got much better as I circled over my sisters house, so I did a small triangle around the area before heading in for a cold drink and a lift back to the hill. Some really good climbs made it possible to push upwind, despite 30km/hr+ drift at times. Back at Milk it seemed a lot more mellow, so I dragged my ancient PG out for a boat about before going home. It was nice to see people still heading over the back from Rybury at 5.30pm. Thanks to Chris, Ian and Martin for volunteering as take off witnesses when I forgot to sort that out before flying. |
| Pictures | :: | |
| XC League | :: | TVHGC :: National |
02 / 08 / 2009 :: Rybury
| Name | :: | David Hague |
| :: | davehague _at_ gmail.com | |
| Date | :: | 02 / 08 / 2009 |
| Direction | :: | West |
| Comments | :: | Took off at 11am when completely overcast. Gradually climbed out with a blue Mantra (Alex?) and pushed upwind towards the sunshine, taking a climb to 4000'. Completely overcast downwind, so drifted with it. Gradually lost height whilst the sky improved, but got a lowish save at 300' AGL back to an inversion at 3000'. After an hour trying to get higher, I followed a dark street and eventually got sucked through the inversion, followed by an average 1100fpm climb for 30 seconds, followed by big ears, speed bar, spiral dive and eventually a b-line stall to avoid the 4500' ceilng (by 22'). Had a "moment" releasing the stall too quickly, with the wing ending in front of me on the horizon, followed by more big ears, speed bar, b-line etc. Flew to the south of the restricted area to escape the lift to a landing near Reading. Quite content to be on the ground! |
| Pictures | :: | http://www.tvhgc.co.uk/photo_gallery/ |
| XC League | :: | TVHGC :: National |
03 / 08 / 2009 :: Rybury
| Name | :: | Mike |
| :: | mikepsilvester _at_ btinternet.com | |
| Date | :: | 03 / 08 / 2009 |
| Direction | :: | South West |
| Comments | :: | A few had gone XC by the time l got to Rybury. As Simon said it was gusty on take off and l was quite rusty, but Bob and Jonty set up with me and Bob got airborne first, l followed but landed to my right. Took of again for a nice 15min boat around. It was good to get a fix :-) |
| Pictures | :: | http://www.tvhgc.co.uk/photo_gallery/ |
| XC League | :: | TVHGC :: National |
02 / 08 / 2009 :: Rybury
| Name | :: | Simon Twiss |
| :: | simon.twiss _at_ btinternet.com | |
| Date | :: | 02 / 08 / 2009 |
| Direction | :: | West |
| Comments | :: | OH MY GOD!!! - It was rough on the ridge! I dont think I've ever felt so vulnerable, so near to the terrain. Good reason to get high then. Declared Newbury with the XC League via text, just before take-off, and saw a PG cruising the street from a site somewhere upwind - better get going! Lost my partner who may or may not have scraped out from behind Martinsell. Joined up with Kirsty and some others, got lowish near Combe but climbed out at a fantastic rate thanks to a bit of teamwork. Got my declared goal in the bag, but Newbury town centre was booming so it was rude not to carry on. Landed at Reading - the others went over me at about 500', but I think I spied that (non-Rybury) early bird way in the distance. All said, much better than expected, given how overcast it was at 11 AM. |
| Pictures | :: | http://www.tvhgc.co.uk/photo_gallery/ |
| XC League | :: | TVHGC :: National |
