No. 376 August 2020 The magazine of the British Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association2 SKYWINGS AUGUST 2020 attitude Arriving at the take-off I am heartened by a cold 15 mph wind, just five degrees to the left. Looking upwind, a few wisps of cumulus are forming already. That’ll do nicely. A weather check reveals that the wind will be steady all day, no gales forecast. The heat of the walk up is dissipating and my flying suit goes on first, followed by a silk balaclava before unpacking my canopy. Laying out my wing, the breeze ruffles the fabric as I stretch out the lines on the coarse grass and pull the ends of the glider across the hillside. Inspection time. I start with the brake lines and work my way forward until the front risers are laid on the top. Connecting the harness and securing the screw-gates, I turn on the instruments for a battery check. None need replacing. Having been caught out before with a duff vario, I’m a little more circumspect with batteries these days. Can you imagine getting a huge flight only to have your GPS die mid-flight? Harness on and buckles secured, it’s time to commit aviation. Looking upwind, the wind direction is unchanged, still five degrees off to the left. The brake lines free, I lift the right risers over my head and turn anticlockwise to face uphill and build a wall, all cells satisfyingly inflated. A gentle pull and the glider rises, the overshoot checked with the brakes. I turn to the right and glance up; it all looks good. Leaning forward, I run five paces and lift from the hillside, starting a leftward turn to become established in the ridge lift. All looks well and I get fully into the harness and try the speed bar before traversing to the bowl where thermals generally gather. Looking down, I see other pilots unpacking and turning on their radios to ask me for a report on conditions. Reaching the bowl, an early thermal encourages me and circling begins. With not enough height to quit the hill yet, I move forward and wait for more lift. I circle two more weak thermals before a decent one takes me to cloudbase. Crikey it’s cold! I continue circling gently and drift downwind with the cloud and cross a small village. Another cloud appears to be building ahead, and I apply some speed and move away from the decaying cloud that got me here. Bingo! Another lift to cloudbase, three hundred feet higher than the previous one. The day must be warming. I cross a valley, wondering if I will have sufficient height to cross the ridge on the other side, but catch a 6-up right in the centre. My altitude increases and I am joined by a hang glider. I hear a fast jet and look around for him without success. The hang glider pilot points down, and there below us, seemingly on the valley floor, hurtles the RAF fighter, soon followed by his mate. Panic over. Crossing to the other side of the valley, the hill on the far side is in sunshine and there’s lift available. I am getting close to the end of the hilly terrain; it is always tricky jumping across to the flatlands but this time it’s OK, the cloudbase is at 5,000ft. A check on the aeronautical chart shows no airspace on my heading, and so it continues, thermal after thermal. Looking to the north a sprawling city simmers in the heat, and beyond it an estuary, running to the sea. Am I headed to the same destination? It continues for two hours until I foul up and fail to get a late save, a promising- looking limestone quarry failing to produce lift and making a landing inevitable. What a shame that it wasn’t a granite quarry, the black rock more likely to pump up a thermal. A grassy paddock next to a road looks inviting and I land and remove my gear in the warm sunshine. Looking up, I see a hang glider and two paragliders circling. Can I hear them laughing at me down here on the floor? No, it’s just my cynical imagination. Well done lads – I hope you reach the coast and get an ice cream on the beach. I pack everything away, walk to the road and pull out my sign: Glider Pilot just landed. Lift Please. Perhaps I should make another: Dejected Failure Moping Home! The dejected failure mopes onward on the traffic-free by-road until a crossroads brings a pub with a garden into view. Bugger the retrieve, beer comes first. ‘A pint of Landlord please, mate.’ Deep joy. ‘I’m not driving at the moment … best have another.’ The taste buds satisfied, I saunter down the busier main road in better spirits. A bus stop comes into view and the timetable suggests a five-minute wait for the next bus. Or will there be three? The destination town is not too far from my car and should get a lift for the last 20 miles. Here’s hoping! I board the bus, my huge rucksack on my back. ‘Camping mate?’ the driver asks? ‘Yes, that’s the plan.’ Explanations are too long-winded to be countenanced. At the terminus I shoulder my pack again and head for where I’ve left my car, grabbing a buttie and a drink on the way. As I hold out the sign, a car with a hang glider on the roof pulls over. ‘Want a lift mate?’ Do bears go into the woods? Yes, he did make it to the coast, his mate driving there as he flew. It’s always a pain getting back from cross- country flying, but the joy of achievement far outweighs the downside. What a great day! Roll on the next one … Photo: Derek Frith A flight of fancy … CLIVE ROBINSON LONGTIME HANG GLIDER AND PARAGLIDER PILOT I get to the hill before others. A cold front passed yesterday and today’s north-westerly and clear skies promise early thermals, and I intend using them.4 SKYWINGS AUGUST 2020 regulars regulars reviews features AUGUST 2020 SKYWINGS 5 THE BHPA LTD 8 Merus Court, Meridian Business Park, Leicester LE19 1RJ. Tel: 0116 289 4316. Skywings magazine is published monthly by the British Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association Ltd to inform, educate and entertain those in the sports of Paragliding and Hang Gliding. The views expressed in this magazine are not necessarily those of the British Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association, their Council, Officers or Editor. The Editor and publisher accept no responsibility for any supposed defects in the goods, services and practices represented or advertised in this magazine. The Editor reserves the right to edit contributions. ISSN 0951-5712 SUBSCRIPTIONS AND DELIVERY ENQUIRIES Tel: 0116 289 4316, THE EDITOR Joe Schofield, 39 London Road, Harleston, Norfolk IP20 9BH. Tel: 01379 855021. COVER PHOTO Dan Burton, Fresh Breeze Sportix/Polini 80 and Gin Falcon Gecko 24 above Dawlish Warren in June. Custom NHS logo very kindly donated by Aerofix. Photo: Dan Burton THIS PAGE Greg Emms derigging his Litespeed after a post-lockdown day at the Long Mynd on May 24th Photo: Richard Sheppard DESIGN & PRODUCTION Fargher Design Ltd. Killane House, Ballaugh, Isle of Man, IM7 5BD. PRINT & DISTRIBUTION Newman Thomson Ltd, One Jubilee Rd, Victoria Ind. Est, Burgess Hill, RH15 9TL. ADVERTISING Tel: 07624 413737 Email: SKYWINGS ONLINE Go For the August issue enter the username Aug_2020 and the case-sensitive password Vx&83#tL For the September issue enter the username Sep_2020 and the case-sensitive password 7H(emD%dN DEADLINES News items and event/competition reports for the October issue must be submitted to the Skywings office by Monday August 31st. Letters for the September Airmail pages should arrive no later than Monday August 17th. Advertisement bookings for the September edition must arrive by Monday August 10th. Copy and classified bookings no later than Monday August 17th.6 SKYWINGS AUGUST 2020 news Richard Gallon Paragliding legend Richard Gallon died on June 12th following a long illness; he was 47. In 1993, at the age of 20, Richard became only the second ever PWC Champion. He was in at the birth of Acro, widely publicised in his series of barely- believable films. Later he flew on the Rodriguez brothers’ Safety Acro Team while continuing development work for several manufacturers. In 2008 he designed his own acro wing; when fellow pilots liked what it offered he began limited production as AirG. He continued to fly in competitions, winning the Val Lourens PWC in 2015. When he became ill he handed AirG on to the younger pilots on his team. He will be remembered by all who he flew with and by those he inspired. [Photo: Nicole Holmes/XC Mag] Klaudia documentary You Never Know, a new documentary featuring Polish paragliding superstar Klaudia Bulgakov, premiered on June 27th. It charts Klaudia’s journey from entering paragliding 15 years ago, via becoming women’s world champion in 2013, to her continued pursuit of excellence, shared joy with friends and motivating others to follow their dreams. It’s inspiring stuff, with very high production values. You Never Know can be found at CAA onshores ultralight certification In June the CAA confirmed that, following public consultation, all new aircraft designs between 450 and 600kg will move to national CAA regulation when the UK leaves EASA, and that all such aircraft will be classified as microlights. The CAA’s GA Unit believes the change will make more new, light two-seaters available, modernising and enlarging the UK fleet. What does any of this mean? Loosely, in bringing certification onshore the CAA has given a green light to expanding the microlight category to 600kg all-up. However, a) legislation is required to enact the idea; and b) no such aircraft are currently certificated, and there are as yet no factory builds of the same. When a) is secured, b) will surely follow. In late June the UK Civil Aviation Authority launched a consultation on a new draft procedure for reviewing airspace classification. It follows an exercise last year in which they invited stakeholders to suggest areas of airspace that should be considered for reclassification, thus altering the flight rules that apply to them. The CAA says that the new classification procedure – part of their Airspace Modernisation Strategy – will help them ‘ensure that the amount of controlled airspace is the minimum required to maintain a high standard of safety, and that the needs of all airspace users are reflected on an equitable basis.’ Stakeholders will be free to submit information about access concerns for any piece of airspace at any time. When the CAA reviews the effectiveness of that airspace, normally every two years, this information will be taken into account. When the new process goes live in December 2020 the CAA will have taken on a new role – of designing and proposing amendments to airspace. The summary of responses from last year’s exercise makes for interesting reading. The GA community responded well to the invitation to comment, making detailed suggestions for airspace that could be reclassified to the benefit of sports and recreational flying. There are of course many areas of airspace where those excluded, or made to comply with onerous procedures, feel that change should come. An example would be the 300 square miles of the Norwich CTA, grabbed in 2011, that ‘protects’ the woeful trickle of commercial traffic using Norwich airport. Other areas generating a large number of responses were Doncaster Sheffield, Daventry CTA, Bristol, Brize Norton and of course Farnborough; many other locations were cited. You can download the report at It remains to be seen whether mountains will actually move. The ongoing tide of airspace acquisition, to the benefit of commercial air transport and the detriment of recreational flying, must be resisted. Now drone operations – with substantial commercial backing – are in the mix too; a strong response from the BHPA, and from individual members, is essential. The current consultation – on the draft procedure for reviewing airspace classification, remember – September 17th 2020. CAA consults on airspace reclassificationThe Flying Circus has always been about people, and the fun that I have been able to have with customers over the last 44 years. Mike Stephens was a core member of the first FCircus team in the British Hang Gliding League, won British Championships while we were prevented from selling Moyes Gliders in the UK, and was always up for a laugh. A hero! Mike flies sailplanes now, so I have sold his GORGEOUS Phantom rigid wing, and still have his Tenax harness to sell off. I also have paragliding harnesses of all types to clear out, basic ones from about £125, right up to lightweight pods at reduced prices to clear! I’m still looking for a big guy to fit this almost-new Aeros Viper Comp harness in a wide fitting – only £350!! I have a few PG rucksacks to clear, including this almost unused Airwave one. Prices start around Does anyone have an Aeros Target that would benefit from a brand new nose cone? Make me an offer. Last time I looked at the World Xcontest tables for the UK Flying Circus Team Pilot and all-round Soper-Hero Jezzer had flown more than twice as far as anyone else, with 455kms! Seen here on the coast in full Covid-prevention guise, Jeremy asks me to remind you that his wonderful Litespeed RS3.5 is for sale for £1750. He is not as scary as he looks – buy it! Just in is a Gin Flight deck at £45. I know somebody wanted one, just can’t recall who! Please call me! I have a wide range of spare tubes for hang gliders – mostly Moyes, Avian and Airwave. All priced to clear as I try to reduce the size of my Look - it is Skyman Scurfy in a tidy Woody Valley Cosmic! Just one of several delicious harnesses that need new homes. Only I have a couple of pairs of Whoosh Wheels for round base bars and a couple for Moyes Fast Bars. Clearly the best wheels I have found, when they are gone, they are gone. This is a tidy Avian Java that needs a new pilot! You could take it to cloudbase for something under £600. And finally…. this is another of my heroes at the controls of a MASSIVE Short Stirling WW2 Bomber. My dad, Pat Murphy, spent the war ferrying legendary aircraft with Air Transport Auxiliary, including quite a few Stirlings from the factory in Belfast to bases around the UK. They dwarfed the Lancaster – my dad was about 5’7” tall. I suspect this is where my love of flying may have started. People! Luppitt, Honiton, Devon, EX14 4SA tel: 01404 891685 Forty years in the business - my extensive range allows you to choose what best suits your needs. Find lots more on the Zoot headsets: Four models for open- and full-face helmets and various radios. Prices from £34.45. Zoot Radio outfits: A great radio and a choice of Zoot headsets for just £77! I stock various speaker/mics and antenna, too! Lots of instruments - all prices reduced to clear Charly Quickout Karabiners for tandem pilots. Weighs 200 gm with a breaking load of 4000kg. £60each The Austrialpin Tropos Steel karabiner for hang gliding, weighs 215gm and is rated to 32Kn. £24 each Charly Pinlock alloy Karabiners: Weighs 80gm, certified to 25 Kn. £27.50 each. The new Charly Snaplock alloy Karabiner, weighs 75gm and certified to 30Kn. £23 each. Tow releases from £48. Hang glider wheels from £51.10 a pair. Zoot Camera Mounts £29.50. Zoot Pip-pins, three lengths from £10.75, and Zoot Caps at £2.75. SMFC Speedarms reduced to clear - £25 Accessories Simon Murphy’s Flying Circus 8 SKYWINGS AUGUST 2020 news Solo flexwing record smashed! On Saturday July 11th hang glider and microlight pilots Jean-Claude Quenault and Blaise Bouchet reset the world solo flexwing microlight distance record at 906.4km. Taking off from Dunkirk at 05.57, they traversed France from north to south before landing at Oloron-Herrère near Pau in the Pyrenees at 17.30. They also reset the world record for fuel consumption to 3.5l/h. Both pilots flew Alizé Swissauto Mystic CX flexwings (see Skywings May 2017) supplied by Ellipse Delta. Blaise described their 12 hours in the air as 'Très tonique!' The previous record – 811km by French pilot Patricia Taillebresse – had stood since 1987. The Nepal Traverse If you are enjoying Steven Mackintosh’s The Nepal Traverse (July Skywings and this month), you might consider helping to crowdfund his film of the trip. Steven first visited Nepal in 1999. He returned in 2019 to fly in the Pokhara region with his daughter, who had just passed her CP rating. He also made a short, solo VolBiv trip which became the seed for the Nepal Traverse, undertaken earlier this year. A film of his exploits is being made – see the trailer at help crowdfund full production and editing go In brief BHPA Shop now open. The BHPA shop is back online. You can now order 24/7 a wide range of items including some of the best books on paragliding, hang gliding, paramotoring and related topics, also DVDs, badges and BHPA-branded accessories. Note that online orders can only be accepted for UK delivery; also that due to reduced staffing levels orders will only be dispatched on a Friday. First post-Covid records. UP paraglider pilot Sebastien Kayrouz set North American straight distance and free- distance-via-three-turnpoints records at 503km on June 8th, from Camp Wood in Texas, aboard an Ozone Mantra 7. 12 days later Owen Morse reset the world hang gliding out-and-return record to 358km aboard a Wills Wing T3, exceeding Thomas Weissenberger’s 2013 record by just 5km. The flight was made northabout from Bartlett in the Owens Valley. 700km in the Owens? Respect is due! FlySpain update. Back up and running since July, FlySpain are booking now for Autumn guided flying and tuition. This includes CP Mentor Plus trips for rusty and low-airtime pilots looking to build airtime and confidence, and paramotoring ab-initio and conversion courses. They are guarding against the risk of a second- wave lockdown by means of a smaller transferable deposit: ‘If we have to go back to making sourdough you can move your booking at no extra cost or hassle.’ For details go Jerry Thwaites, shortly to take over at Sunsoar Paragliding, pens a short history of the school and an outline of the future Sunsoar Paragliding is the final incarnation of a flying school that began way back in the eighties as Northern Hang Gliding. Ian Currer (legend!) and Rob Cruickshank initiated Northern Paragliding at a time when paragliding was a new and exciting activity and public interest was growing. Ian Brown, paragliding since 1987 and then working with Eagle Quest in the Lakes, joined them as a trainee instructor in 1993. At the time it was a very busy environment with as many as 30 students on any weekend. A fair number of instructors were involved, including Rob’s brother Neil Cruickshank (also a top competition pilot), Chris Fountain, Paul Hatton, Sue Larkin and John Callum. The business was based at Hawes in the middle of the Yorkshire Dales, next to some of the best sites in the UK. In the late 90s, with paragliding still growing, it was decided to create a second school – Lakes Paragliding based at Askham, Cumbria – thus covering most of Northern England. It ran alongside Northern Paragliding, by then based near Kirkby Stephen on the edge of the Dales. These were halcyon days for teaching in the UK. There was a thriving shop and mail order business supplying equipment. Everything was booming – except for the weather! The schools were amongst the first to really notice climate change as the number of available teaching days per year gradually declined. It was decided that if the good weather wasn’t available in the UK, the schools would go to the good weather! Sunsoar was the first BHPA school to teach EP and CP abroad, now common practice in the BHPA environment. The ethos behind choices of destination was safety, nice environment, smooth, reliable conditions and family friendliness. Ian Brown came up with name ‘Sunsoar’ because that was what they wanted to do, soar in the sun! The first venue was the Dune de Pyla on the coast of south- western France. This was one of the most successful venues and EP and Tandem teaching continued there until 2018. There is nowhere quite like the Dune! Other destinations followed, such as the Alps, Cyprus (North and South - where Pete Gallagher first got involved), and Greece and Morocco for CP and post-CP tuition. Portugal, Nepal, Italy and Slovenia were added in more recent times. For years Pete Gallagher and Pete Morris (big Pete and little Pete!) ran Sunsoar, up until the Coronavirus hiatus. Sunsoar Paragliding has been a pioneering enterprise which set the template for paragliding schools for a quarter century. For those involved (students and instructors) it has been a wonderful adventure full of happy times, colour and fulfilment. From October 2020 Jerry Thwaites will take over the running of the business to carry on the ethos of the Sunsoar. He is a serving (retiring at the end of 2020) Army helicopter and fixed-wing pilot, former hang glider pilot (since 1978) and paragliding instructor. The focus of the new Sunsoar will be the development of pilot skills (post-CP), and tandem training in fantastic overseas destinations such as Morocco, Slovenia, Turkey, Nepal and others. Long live Sunsoar! Take the school to the good weather!AUGUST 2020 SKYWINGS 9 A native of Grantham, Rod learned to fly in North Lincolnshire in the late 1970s and built his first glider from a kit. By 1980, flying in the Peak district had become a family pastime. Later his son Alan and daughter Jenny would take up the sport; both are still flying today. In 1984 Rod became chairman of the Sheffield Hang Gliding Club, working to maintain good relationships with landowners and local schools and encouraging new recruits. He returned to the chairmanship a few years later when the club was beginning to embrace paragliding and had renamed itself the Derbyshire Soaring Club. Placating landowners, the Peak Park and local schools was again the order of the day. He also took parties of inexperienced hang glider pilots to Lanzarote to enjoy spectacular winter airtime, and was the BHPA’s Radio Officer for many years. Never a lightweight, Rod flew a huge 177 Airwave Magic IV for many years. It was, in his words, ‘a bit wingy’ and occasionally bit him, but he kept on flying it until its 35+ kilos became too much even for him. He was never an XC hound, preferring to remain within the confines of the hill where beginners could be assisted and conversations had. A lifelong interest in electronics – and a total lack of fear when climbing ladders – led to him developing and erecting a phone-access weather station on Bradwell Edge, one of the club’s prime sites, in 1987. The station, funded by persuading every club member he met to stump up £20, was an immediate success. A local wag came up with the Wendy Windblows name, and soon other clubs were clamouring for a station of their own. Initially you called a number, entered a code and listened as a lady’s voice read off wind speed, gust factor, temperature and cloudbase – the lady was a friend of Rod’s from Yorkshire TV. Soon the phone repeater was moved from the Avian factory to a cafe down in the valley, where pilots could sit and watch conditions changing on a TV monitor as they planned the day’s flying. By this time Rod had built several more stations on major sites – there were eventually 25 of them. Each one required careful negotiation with a landowner, a lot of expertise to erect and get the comms to work and, sometimes, frequent maintenance. A windy winter would disable several of them and Rod would criss-cross the country, often with his second wife Lynn to assist, climbing tall masts in spring gales to put them back on line. A single subscription covered them all; in 1999 this increased to £24 a year, with a loyalty system that ensured that as long as you stayed a member your subs never went up again. Although for many years a reliable and invaluable resource, and very much ahead of its time, over the years Wendy’s headwinds multiplied. Rival, free systems proliferated on the internet, maintenance became more difficult, negotiating new access and power supplies from increasingly commercially-oriented landowners became prohibitive. Rod’s own ill health and advancing years didn’t help; he had suffered several near-fatal falls in his day job of erecting antennas. After subsidising it himself for some time, Rod finally closed the business in 2018, leaving just the original Bradwell station functioning on open access to the free flying community. ‘My wives have long regarded Wendy as the “other woman”,’ he wrote, ‘She took up a lot of my time, but it was fun to create something totally new. She must have been something special at the beginning to wrest subscriptions from Yorkshire pilots, renowned for regarding a fiver as a hostage!’ In his youth Rod had been a professional wrestler and more than once stood up to Mick McManus, the ‘Dulwich Destroyer’. Sometimes opinionated and frequently argumentative, he revered hang gliding and (sometimes grudgingly) paragliding, and assisted the sports’ growth in many ways. Despite the tough exterior he was always kind, especially to newbies, and had a great sense of humour. He will be remembered by the flying movement for pioneering a really useful live-data network, in advance of anything available at the time, that ran for 30 years. By those who knew him well he will be remembered as a really friendly, helpful, selfless guy who got things done ... with jokes. Last year he was awarded the Royal Aero Club’s Certificate of Merit; his contribution to the sport has been beyond valuation. Rod is survived by his wife Lynn, son Alan and daughter Jenny, and by his first wife Mary. [JS] Rod Buck 1949 - 2020 Most of those who came into contact with Rod, who died on June 19th after a short illness, did so as a result of his remarkable system of Wendy Windblows weather stations. In fact his long association with the Derbyshire club and the greater sport was of merit in itself. Next >