Piedrahita

So the big one for British pilots arrives ,its Wednesday now and on Friday all the UK comp pilots are on our way another British championships in Piedrahita.
I am keeping my fingers crossed for epic full on conditions and not to much of the famed sink that decks so many good pilots,it is the only place in the world where I have had solid 5-8 mps sink from 3000mts to the ground AHHHHHHHH.

flaming june

Well it has been a f****ing month so far ,but hopefully that's about to change, I am on holiday now and heading for Malvern on Sunday to make the most of a good forecast for the start of next week.Somehow I am sure I wont be alone!!!
I will update you next week before I head of to Piedrahita for the first round of the British Champs.

Parlick again

Me and Mike Cav went to Parlick for the good forecast on Sunday of the May bank holiday weekend and where rewarded with a fantastic 5 hour wing tip too wingtip flight across the width of the UK over the dales with a dramatic low save from Malham,I could see climbers on the routes I had climbed 15 years ago then over to Kilnsey and out into the flatlands with the North york moors a glide or two away and on to Whitby,that is three times I have flown Parlick and it has given me fantastic flying everytime with 114-58-151 km flights hopefully I can get that elusive 200km from what is fast becoming my favored XC launch.

Parlick

OH I forgot to mention a nice little 58km flight from Parlick,I had declared a 106km goal flight but after 50km flying with Andy Wallace, John Ellison and Simon Ballie we sort of decided enough was enough, on what was a windy and scary looking day and landed at Whitestones. quite happy with our decisions to land.
I didn't take any pics but Sammy Sky god has some nice ones on this site

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=69796&id=841147304&l=5325866256

The Boarders

The Uk comps have kicked off with the British Paragliding Cup in the scotish Boarders 60 keen pilots flew a 46km task from Broughton Heights to Hawick on Sunday with 16 pilots making the goal, the winner was Martin Sandwith.
I flew the task just to be sociable but made the mistake of flying in a teashirt and wind proof jacket and at about -10deg taking into account windchill I was a tad cold.
It was a grand flight with spectacular views from the east to west coast only marred by the £50 taxi fare back to Mikes car ,but a price worth paying for a very special flight

Hurray the Uk gets going

Many great flights have been flown over the last couple of weeks with Andy Wallace , John Stevenson,Jean Luc Boudan,making 150km flights from Eyam to Whitby,the same day I flew 110km for a new Parlick site record to Spennymore Co Durham, a fantastic flight over the heart of the Yorkshire dales ,then the next weekend John Ellison flew 150km from the Dales to Berwick upon Tweed and those who ventured up to the Lakes where rewarded with a once in 10 years day with 6-7000ft Cloud base and epic flying so here are some pictures from Sunday in the Lakes.

Over and Done

Well its all over and I realy dont know what to say,I suppose dissapointed would sum this week up.
Poor weather, poor tasks, and a poorer scoring system which ended up discarding three of the five tasks with only Friday and Saturday scoring,this left a lot of people bemused and upset,after flying consistantly through the week and being in 17th position on Friday, I finished in 18th place with 923 pts on Saturday and dropped to 27th overall,the PWCA seem to be making a deliberate attempt to push racing at all costs,and punish good consistant good flying,and its not a route I want to go down.
So good bye from a wet, in more ways than one, GV PWC