Advance paragliders in the West Country

I’m not referring to a flying drought as I’ve had plenty of flying and airtime, it’s the dearth of 100km+ flights that’s befallen me since May. I managed four 100km+ flights in April and May, but since then I’ve flown 19km, 24km, 41km, 49km and 65km. I also had a wonderful 38km out and return coastal flight (see vid below), and a great afternoon tandem flying, but the magic 100km (or should it be 200km these days) has eluded me for two months. At least the distances are going up steadily so hopefully I won’t have to wait too much longer 🙂

I think the reasons are that Spring airmasses are in general better for XC flights, and also the good days seem to be easier to forecast from a few days out, whereas this summer at least, whilst there have been good days, I think they’ve been harder to spot and harder to make the right site choice. I’ve also had a few flights where the dreaded spreadout has reared its ugly head, which is symptomatic of me picking the wrong day I guess… What do you think?

Having said all that, Monday’s 65km flight from Uffington was good fun, flying all 65kms in the close company of some good flying buddies. Here are some highlights of the flight…

Sadly on this occasion spreadout got the better of us, and we all landed between 64 and 71kms from takeoff…

All my photos are on Flickr here, and my flight is in the XC league here.