Tom Payne has written a fantastic tool for XC planning which is currently in beta version here xcplanner.appspot.com. It’s a fantastic for route planning and works well on smartphones too. If you use it in conjunction with Michael von Känel’s excellent thermal and tracklog map then you’re onto a winner 🙂
Anyway I’ve had a bit of fun over the last couple of days and have created some routes that I’d love to fly sometime! I rather suspect that many of them will be only in my dreams, but hey ho, there’s nothing wrong with dreaming 🙂
So here they are – enjoy! And if you make any interesting routes yourselves using XC Planner, let me know the URL for them and I’ll add them to my list here…
Just plain silly 🙂
S: Butser South to Middlesborough (407km!) (Thanks to Richard Chambers)
SW: Nant-y-Moel to Scarborough (362km) (Thanks to Mark Cousins *)
WSW: Nant-y-Moel to Norwich (342km) (Thanks again to Mark Cousins *)
* I’ve added these two flight to this category because I believe that the wind strength you’d need in order to do these flights would be such that it would be too windy to take off. But you never know, hopefully someone will prove me wrong!
Record breaking!
N dropping: Hundred House > Heol Senni > Pandy > Hundred House (115km, 378 XC points if declared, 298 if not)
SW: Corton Denham to Norfolking chance (311km) (NB. weekends only)
SE: Golden Ball to Anglesey (290km) (Inspired by Colin Hawke)
NW: Long Mountain to Worthing Pier (284km)
S: Long Knoll to somewhere oop North (278km)
NNW: Llangollen to Swanage (276km)
SSW: Milk Hill (or Golden Ball) to Grimsby (275km)
W: Malvern (Beacon) to Southwold (274km)
ENE: Hambledon Hill to Lands End (267km)
NW: Long Mynd to Worthing Pier (263km)
NW: Bradwell Edge to Walton on the Naze (263km) (This is a 7km extension of Richard Carter’s record breaking 256km flight of 9/8/2011)
SSE: Golden Ball to Great Orme (260km) (thanks to Colin Hawke)
Sky gods!
SW: Rybury/Milk Hill to Brancaster, Norfolk (250km)
NW: Selsley to Eastbourne Pier (214km)
NNW: Llangollen to Bath (186km)
NW: Frocester to Brighton Pier (185km)
W: Butser West to Margate (183km) (Thanks to Richard Chambers)
E: Malverns (Kettle Sings) to Haverfordwest (182km)
NE: Corndon to Haverfordwest (175km)
NW: Selsley to Worthing Pier (169km / 105miles!)
SSE: Golden Ball to Welshpool (169km / 105 miles)
W: Malvern W (Beacon) to Cambridge (166km / 103miles)
Ambitious mortals 🙂
E: Pandy to Haverfordwest (156km)
NNW: Leckhampton to Bognor Regis (156km)
NW: Selsley/Frocester to Arundel (152kms declared, 205 points) (see article)
NNE: Leckhampton to Weymouth (142km)
NNW: Uffington to Barnham (105km declared, 141 points). Then carry on to Littlehampton (see video)
ESE: Malvern (Kettle Sings) to Aberystwyth (125km)
NW: Combe Gibbet to Brighton Pier (117km)
NNE: Westbury to Sidmouth (112km)
NW: Liddington to Bognor Regis (110km)
WSW: Frocester to Milton Keynes (108km)
SW: Milk Hill to Milton Keynes National Bowl (104km)
NNE: Hundred House to Porthcawl (80km)
NNW: Westbury to Swanage (79km)
XC Virgins
NW: Batcombe (aka Telegraph Hill) to Swanage (46km)
NNE: Monksdown to Lulworth Cove (42km)
NW: Bell Hill to Swanage (37km)
S: Mere to Bath (Combe Down) (29km)
I’ll add a few more in due course, in particlar Hugh Miller’s excellent “Classic 100’s” which were published in Skywings last year.
Advance paragliders in the West Country 