It looked promising weather for the week, but then it did last August when I went up for 7 days and only got 2 flights in.
I'd spent the previous 3 or 4 weeks 'converting' the X5 to be a camper van… top box, lots of storage drawers fitted in, fitted flat bed I made from plywood and memory mattress foam, etc.
I even sorted out a power system - a big 110ah leisure battery, with wiring into the car electrics - charging it when the car is on. All boxed up with 12v and 240v outputs, power, volt and even 'amp hours used' meters.
I trialled it all for 3 nights up at Northrepps, and with a few modifications I was pretty confident I'd be comfortable.
The plan was fluid, and weather dependent. Drive up to my parents in Kilncadzow, Lanarkshire on the thursday. Spend friday there, and fly if possible, then start the tour saturday.
I had over a week if I wanted it - not needing to be back at work till a week on tuesday. I expected to be spending a lot of time watching rain battering off the windscreen, so I had plenty to read, plenty to watch (on the laptop) and plenty to play (I brought my electric guitar).
The plan up till friday night had me driving up to 'Rest and Be Thankful' - a famous rest spot on the A83. Named by the road builders in 1753. However, the weather was changing and it now seemed like it would not be flyable there for 2 or 3 days.
A last minute hunt around various weather sites and a decision to try the Fife coast on sat/sun was made. From there I could travel over to the west (through stirling) and north later in the week hopefully.
I parked in a small car park on the coast at Lower Largo saturday lunchtime.
Almost immediately it started to rain, and proceeded to piss down for the next 2 or 3 hours. arse. An acrimonious start.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h84euU0xLGk
After downing several glasses of wine from the fridge (hell - the battery ain't there for show! ) I was amazed when the sun came out at 6ish. By 7 it was lovely for an evening flight, however I'd had too much to drink and had to leave it till the next day.
Sunday was lovely. Blue skies and no wind. I mean - not a peep, at least at the coast where I was.
I hoped to take off from the beach, but the tide was in, so I had to look for somewhere else. I got in the car, and drove around a bit, finally finding an empty field sloping towards the coast.
My windsock was almost completely limp, but not quite, with a very slight onshore breeze. So I had a direction.
Set up for a forward launch, and since I was on a slight incline figured that I wouldn't need _that_ much of a runway.
However, I had to run like buggery, nearly ran out of field and had to promptly turn right after take off to avoid the road.
I flew down to the coast and headed east up to Anstruther.
I was flying much closer to the ground than I usually do, and was impressed with the sense of speed, however I had not switched on my GPS/iphone at this point. I had a great flight along the coast, crossing over little bits of water, taking photos, and enjoying the 'still' air. It was only when I got to Anstruther and attempted a 360 to have another pass over the town that I realised that the non-existent wind.. existed… and was blowing at 20mph+… hence the impressive ground speed.
Facing the wind I was making 1 or 2 mph. Onto fast trim and full speed bar made about 6 or 7mph. Arse. where the hell had that come from. I'd been flying for 45 mins, and had only put about 5 litres of fuel in, thinking that that would be plenty.
I had no choice but to head back, and make a direct line of sight flight back to Lower Largo, rather than going around the coast. With full speedbar I made a steady 6 or 7 mph… and it was about 6 or 7 miles back. I tried going higher and lower, but around 4-500 feet seemed to be the sweet spot.
I spent the next hour on full speed bar, my legs aching, waiting for my engine to stutter on it's last dregs of fuel.
The last 10 mins were the worst - seeing my take off field and wondering if I was gonna make it or not.
I played it safe landing wise as I was sure the wind was playing funny buggers - my wind sock was still showing no wind!!!
I came in on an approach which would land me very short with 3/4 of the field spare (where my wind sock was) IF the wind stayed constant, but if it dropped away in the last 30 or 40 feet, I'd have space to glide forward.
Sure enough, 50 feet or so from the ground, suddenly I started to accelerate (I was now on +3 trim) and ended up landing right next to my wind sock.
Not a peep of wind the ground.
It stayed like that for the rest of the morning back at the car park - seemingly no wind whatsoever - no clouds in the sky to say differently, but I knew that 50-100 feet up it was blowing 20mph. very weird.
Had about an egg cup of fuel left in the tank. I'd had to spent the last hour on nearly full power, being on fast trim and full bar. So pretty amazed to have done nearly 2 hours with over half on full power on 5 litres, but then again, I don't seem to be able to use more than 2/5litres an hour whatever I do on to top80.
I decided that future flights would carry a bit more fuel in reserve…
http://powerlord.smugmug.com/Paramotor/Scotland-2011-Fife/
Monday looked good for Stirling, but not good yet for the North West. So I headed over to Stirling hoping to achieve one of my 'flight wishes' - to fly over stirling castle.
I arrived at Stirling around 11am and conditions were perfect, I found a large empty field with great access and quickly set up.
Forward again, but up in 10 steps or so this time (good for me). I had a great 45 min flight over the castle and the wallace monument (where you can see William Wallace's sword). A glorious day, lots of tourists waving and some great piccies.
Coming back to land was a bit more tricky as my field was surrounded by roads and street lights… plus I had a few cars stop and watch the 'entertainment'…. came in fine, but was so busy appealing to the spectators I forgot to kill the engine and managed to actually blip the throttle on landing, sending myself several feet back up into the air. However, came down again fine, and all was well.
http://powerlord.smugmug.com/Paramotor/scotland-2011-stirling-castle/
Now, time to head further North. I travelled through Callander which was mobbed with tourists, but for good reason - the hills around it look great and would look even better from the air… but where to take off ?
About 3 miles after Callander, there was an empty field on the right. Still very much in a deep valley though with mountains on both sides.
I stuck the wind sock up and it made a pretty good impression of being 'random direction indicator'. Covering the whole 360 every 5 mins or so… but not with much strength behind it - 2 or 3 mph max.
If I wanted a flight at Callander it was the only place I could possibly take off from so I decided to have a go.
My thoughts were, I set up for a forward, wait for the wind to be the right direction, and get up in the air before it changes. I'm clearly just getting rotar from all the hills, so once I make some 'bumpy' height I should be in clear air…..
An hour of sweating, running, laying out my wing, trying reverses, etc and I realised I was being a muppet. It was pointless - Taking off on a field dominated by rotar was pretty stupid. I learned my lesson, packed up and continued north to Fort William.
At Fort William I met up with my parents, who were climbing corbetts (after finishing all the Monros last year). We wild camped on a deserted road, watching the sun set over Ben Nevis. It was looking good for tomorrow.
http://powerlord.smugmug.com/Paramotor/Scotland-2011-On-the-way-to/
The next morning was perfect, we headed over the Glen Nevis and found an ideal take off field - a field the owner keeps cut, and opens to folk for walking and picnics. The owner turned up and we had a chat with him. He had no problem with my taking off, and would I please send him the pictures! Now why does that not happen in england??
Again, there was no wind, but by the time I set up there was an inclination of the windsock to favour one side of the stick… nothing you could feel, but it was enough to have a go.
The grass was soaken with moisture, so I had a heavy wet wing, and no wind… joy of joys.
Still, set up, took a bit of a run, hauled the wing up and ran like a b4stard. My trustily reaction took it in its stride. My massive run, took me right to a small stream though, so I had to pull the breaks at the last minute and hope to get over it. It worked, and I was away, some manoeuvring through the surrounding trees till I got height and I was on full power to climb.
11 minutes later I was at 2000 feet. The air as smooth as a baby's bum. I called my mum on my iphone (with my home made headphones) and told her all was going well.
This really was the best flight I've ever had. Such amazing scenery, such clear skies, such smooth air. Absolutely fecking awesome.
20 minutes later I was at 4800 feet or so, high enough to clear the summit. I had great fun flying around the summit, taking photos, waving to the early birds on the top. In the end I climbed up to 6000 feet. It was still quite warm up there and still totally windless (I could tell from my GPS speed). How many times does Britain's highest mountain get these conditions ??
I called my mum again to say I was over the top, etc, and I'd be down in 20 mins or so.
I then got a telemarketing call about my motorcycle insurance. "rem… I can't really speak to you just now, I'm flying a paraglider at 6000 feet over Ben Nevis"….
I let the motor tick over, and slowly descended from 6000 feet, finally coming to land within 5 feet of my windsock (where there was now a 1-2mph breeze in the opposite direction).
My parents immediately ran over, with my mum looking a bit distressed - apparently I was out of sight from the Glen, looking east over the Ben for much of the flight, she had called and I had answered (must have been automatic as I hadn't) - she had heard me grunt and moan I decided that I had crashed… they had ran back to the car and were searching for mountain rescue numbers when I landed next to them…. why they hadn't just turned around to the north and saw me spiralling down for the last 20 mins I don't know.
Anyhoo, a wonderful flight, 2 of my 'dream flights' not crossed off my list. sweet.
http://powerlord.smugmug.com/Paramotor/Scotland-2011-Ben-Nevis/
I used one of the new features of my Sony A55-V on this flight - automatic panoramas. I've tried taking panoramas before when flying with little success - lining them up and getting them horizontal is really tricky. With the sony, you just press the shutter, and sweep the camera around - as it takes 10 pics a second it gets all the data it needs, and stitches it all together itself into an 8000x2000 pixel panorama.
So I've given them their own gallery:
http://powerlord.smugmug.com/Paramotor/Scotland-2011-Nevis-Panoramas/
We stayed in Glen Nevis that night, and the next day I headed down to Glencoe (dream flight idea no.3).
This was not going to be so easy…the wind was blowing over Rannoch Moor, and the Moor itself far too boggy and bumpy to take off. I took a drive down Glen Etive and each small clearing I came to the wind was blowing a different direction: south, north, east, west.. the lot. Some valleys a breeze, some 40-50kph….. there was clearly a wind. And i was getting tunnelled down the valleys of Glencoe all over the place.
I wasn't going to miss an opportunity to fly Glencoe though, so drove up it again hoping to find the biggest flattest bit of the valley I could find.
Eventually I found what I was looking for - a nice flat field in the widest part of the valley (still only 200m or so wide). The wind seemed to be stableish - coming from the south… though the wind sock was waving about a fair bit.
Also, the field had sheep in it, though luckily for me at the other end of the field. Sheep ain't horses, and don't go too mental with a parameter, so I thought I'd risk it.
I got all my stuff sorted and got setup.. I got to the stage of setting out my wing, looked at the wind sock and it was now a northerly.
£$%@GF!±±±
Ok I expected as much - its moving around depending on the prevailing strongest bit coming over one of the mountains. However, I figured unlike Callander, this wasn't rotar - it was a steady wind changing around sometimes. I watched it for 5 mins it stayed north.
I decided to go for it, quickly set the wing out, checked it was still north and took off.
Pretty bumpy, but I expected that at first, I expected after 500 feet or so it would calm down….
2000 feet and now over Glencoe village. It hasn't calmed down. In fact I am getting chucked all over the sky like a rag doll.
My stomach is in my mouth and I feel about to puke up at any minute…however I'm damned if I'm landing yet.
It's pretty warm by now too (1pm or so), and I'm hitting thermals that are chucking me around too. I climb to 3800 feet. Enough to see over the top of aonach eagach ridge, and along Glencoe. I took no pictures as it was all I could do to control my breathing and avoid puking.
Bugger this, I need to land - I came in on tick over, losing speed as quick as I could, but no 360s - that would have ended my battle with puking.
After what seemed an eternity (actually less than 10 minutes) I got back to the landing site, the wind had again moved through 180 degrees, and I landed next to my wind sock.
what a fecking horrible flight. However, I got some video, and I'd 'done' Glencoe….
After 20 mins of lying on the grass glad to still be alive, I headed south to Lochearnhead.
Lochearnhead sits on the back of Loch Earn - a very picturesque location - amazingly only an hour and a half from glasgow.
They was a nice free car park at the loch, and a cafe too. A scotch pie, chips and beans and a few pints of guiness later and I'd recovered from Glencoe.
There was no way I was flying again today… hell the idea of flying again ever was not something I wanted to think much about at that point, so I was happy to relax in the sun.
The next morning, thursday, was going to be my last flyable day - the weather was changing, with the wind forecast to pick up late thursday, and by friday be 50kph+ over the whole of scotland, where it was forecast to remain over the weekend.
To my surprise I was raring for another flight. Right opposite the car park was a lovely flat field owned by the cafe. I'd asked them the previous days about taking off their and they were fine with it.
The wind was a steady southerly. Perfect.
A forward take off in 10 steps or so and I was away. I had a great hour and a half flight going all the way around Loch Earn, up to St Fillans, over Beinn Fuath (where I got a bit of bumpy ridge lift), and up the northern road to Glencoe a bit.
Finally landing back where I started, where I was approached by the pilot of the local amphibian plane for a chat about parameters, how much they cost and where he can train.
http://powerlord.smugmug.com/Paramotor/Loch-Earn/
A great end to a great week.
stu
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