Saturday the 12th January 2008. Welcome to our Events page! We try to update it regularly! Your guide to club and school events in the Wilderness area. This should be where the action is! Did we miss something?
Midweek flying (past and present)
|
||
Saturday the 12th January 2008. Welcome to our Events page! We try to update it regularly! Your guide to club and school events in the Wilderness area. This should be where the action is! Did we miss something? |
||
Midweek flying (past and present) |
||
We fly every day weather and bookings permitting! 12th January 2008 Russell completes his Novice rating! Well done Rus!
We got up this morning to an overcast and hazy sky. The prediction was for drizzle but it remains clear so we race up to the Map and find light and smooth conditions. Perfect! Russell does his first few beats along the ridge and manages to stay up for 10 minutes. "That was awsome!" he says before we load up and go up for another. The second is a straight out and transition to the base bar with a variation on the landing approach. Again perfect! On the third flight we get awarded with a sudden increase in the wind speed and Russell manages to soar for 35 minutes in completely uncrowded skies! A great achievement! Good one Russell! :-) We wish him the best hang gliding career and he has promised to stay in touch. I have had news from Tim Leach from his lodge in Tanzania (mid Africa). He has managed 3 flights to date on his new Wills Wing U2. Being a newbie and flying a new glider he is taking it easy and reports "Surprisingly easy landings". He has found a spot that is 1500ft but known for its windyness and with the arrival of a vario he hopes to get more airtime. Lets hope he does! Good luck in the dark parts of Africa Tim! :-) We eagerly await our next student to master the wonderfull art of flying like a bird... 10th January 2008... We spent the morning doing some flights from the dunes at Klein Krans. It was light SE winds. From 50m Russell would fly out, do a 90 degree left turn and land on the beach. It was simple but the extra altitude took a little bit more time to get used to for Russel. After 6 flights from the top he nailed it. We went for lunch and Russel thought we were done for the day - not likely if Ihad my way! :-) After lunch we cassually drove up to the map to just have a lok at some of the flying. "Hey Rus, you feel like flying?" He smiled and in all honesty said he thinks he would like to but is a bit nervous. Absolutely normal! He was ready! In a couple of minutes I drove down after he had a perfect flight, landing on the beach to smiles of some sunbathers. The ussaul beauties where lying about brightening the sunny days even further! Russel followed that with another and is fast on his way to earning his Novice rating in hang gliding. Weldone Russel! :-) 8th Jnauary 2008... Russel has been doing well. Allwe are waiting for is some fine smooth weather for him to start his forst high flights. Today the wind was a bit on the storng side. SE, which was good for the map - there were some guys flying but of course it was just a bit strong for a beginner pilot to do his first real altitude flights! Of course after riggin at the top of the dune (and it turned out too gusty and strong for Russel) I had to fly the glider down. I could not resist to soar around for 10 minutes while Russel carried down our bags. Soon he will be doing this! Instead we did a few more short flights from the low part of the Klein Krans dunes. Good practice for Russel. We had some great company too - it was a bit of a destraction and in the end I could not resist to take a picture - just from an artistic point of view of course... :-)
Russel being helped by me just before we decided it ws too strong...
Summer time flying distractions... December 2007 Well done to Devon and David for doing 5 perfect hgih flights form the Map of Africa. Conditions where absolutely perfect for the flights with light SE winds making for easy flying. What away to end the year! :-) Great stuff dudes!
The flying has been intermittend with a couple of days of rain (Christmass!) but we have had some good stuff inbetween. Gerrie, Peter Pharao and I had some airtime at Serpentine with both of them visit the white room in some good thermal conditions. Personally I flew later and put up a good fight managing 15 minutes before landing next to Island lake. Today, the 1st we have some more rain and in the quite of the morning after I can report of four flights of yesterday in epic soarig conditions over Paradise ridge. Pete van and I managed to time it right. At the same time I took two nubies for tandems flights. Both times we also manged to get to the white room and Tyrone and Rory were beyond stoke! Great one!
Previously.... We have been having some good flying - Thursday saw us with a great SW wind that allowed Devon and I a good tandem flight above paradise ridge. He is making good progress - of course he has flown with his dad on their trike, which has helped allot with some of the instinctive role controls. Our take off was very cool - the wind was strong so we carried up the dune a bit and then proceeded with a good "helicopter" launch. We did not take one step; just lifted off and climbed away in the smooth coastal air. Here is a pic of that flight....
We flew for almost an hour before the winds started moderating for us to do some solo training on the beach. On Saturday we got a good SE and the Map of Africa was cranking the goods. Pete van made the paraglider pilots jealous by launching in a training Falcon 2 and stayed up in such light winds they were unable to match him! Later as the winds picked up and all the paraglider pilots had landed, Lennox and Iron man Mike were skied out by the time we arrived (We did some dune training in the early morning before the winds became to side on for the slope). This time I took David from the UK for a tandem while Devon waited. After a 4 year layoff from flying, this was the first time David took to the air tandem. Naturally he loved it and he flew like a champ!
Eventually the winds picked up real strong and we decided to land. It was a perfect helicopter landing - of course we could not help but be attracted to the spot where we had some lovely ladies enjoying the warm African sun!
We had a rest day on Sunday and flew Monday, Tuesday and Wednessday with a good SW on Monday and then strong South Easterlies. Dick, Lennox and Pete van made some great air time with Pete having 8 flights on Monday (All top landings!) pigging out on over 4 hours of airtime! Lennox and Dick got a few lessons on soaring and had three flights each, eventually adding over an hour of airtime to their tally too. Devon and David managed near ten flights each fromt he dunes and are making superb progress. All we need now is another day or two of altitude flying and they are ready for their high flights! Watch this space for this great achievement! So it finally happened. Five perfect high flights each for Devon and David. What a great way to end the year. What a great way to start a lve avair with soaring! Congrats Devon. We hope to see you soon for some more soaring lessons!
|
Weekday flying and training |
Fly aways. – Next fly away to be announced |
Club Meetings Club meetings take place the first weekend of each month. Venue: Bergen, 777 White road, Wilderness. Time: 7:00 for 07:30. Come and relax, have a beer and listen to your mates’ epic adventures the last month. Think you are a flying guru? Test your knowledge with our quiz session! All are welcome. |
Training progress report 1st January 2008 With the departure of Devon and David and the arrival of the new year, we are proud to say our next course is starting tommorrow. Russel from the UK and a local lady, Lisa are going to earn their wings! We will try and keep you in the loop of their progress! 16 December 2007 With Roger and Markus departure we have been joined by Devon and David. Devon is 15years old from Durban and David is near 50 from England! Both are as keen as ever and enjoying the freedon and experience that only hang gliding can offer. Devon has made huge prgress with many short dune flights while David is doing some refresher training after a 4 year layoff. Soon they will both be soaring the skies above Wilderness with total freedom! :-)
|
Advanced course. Every month! During the past 14 years the advanced hang gliding course has mutated
into more of a meteorology course than anything else! So it is good for all pilots - no
matter what you fly! I invite you to 3 evening lectures covering a variety of subjects.
From some basic macro met features to detailed micro met conditions. The course is geared
towards the soaring pilot so we pay special attention to soaring conditions and specific
lift phenomena. |
