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North Wales HangNorth Wales HangNorth Wales HangNorth Wales Hang----Gliding & Paragliding ClubGliding & Paragliding ClubGliding & Paragliding ClubGliding & Paragliding Club

Newsletter Newsletter Newsletter Newsletter –––– May May May May 2007200720072007

From the Chairman & EditorFrom the Chairman & EditorFrom the Chairman & EditorFrom the Chairman & Editor A few of our members made an early start to the season by going abroad to fly – see their reports later – but it was

March before I managed to briefly get airborne this year! It appears that the Easter weekend gave members good

opportunities for flying, but not for any epic XCs – though Carl Wallbank and Dave Edwards have been going

places since, as usual! With a trend of easterly winds in recent weeks, those promised spring thermals have yet to

reach their full potential. Meanwhile, use the good weather to get back into full flying form so you are ready for the

big ones when they arrive. Aim to fly safely.

While the number of NWHGPC members who paraglide far outnumbers those who fly hang gliders, our small

group of hangies do a damn fine job of it, with some taking an active and leading part in the national / international

HG scene. Carl Wallbank is in the top 30 of the world rankings and has been selected as the UK team captain for

this year’s HG World Cup; and Dave ‘Shedsey’ Shields is UK coordinator for the Bleriot Cup, to be held in France

later this year. We wish you well in these tasks, gentlemen, and good fortune in the competitions. If there is any

way your Club can help you, do ask.

Some interesting figures: I subscribe to the French ‘Parapente’ magazine, and from a recent supplement I learn that

there are 29 manufactures of paragliders world wide, making 215 different gliders – and most of those in various

sizes! And in France, there are 80 PG training schools affiliated to the French national federation. It’s big business

over there!

Looking ahead to our winter programme, does anyone have any good ideas for future Club Night speakers? Do let

me have your ideas and any contact details soon, so I can arrange a varied programme. See you on the hill!

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NEWSNEWSNEWSNEWS

Horses I have taken this from the AGM Report, but it bears repetition: if flying at Llangollen, look out for horses grazing

in the two bottom landing fields nearest to the School – and avoid landing in those fields if they are. As ‘flight not

fight’ animals, horses are far more sensitive to our passage and sudden arrival than cows or sheep seem to be: not to

mention being far more valuable if we had to meet a claim for their injury! Of course, the same advice applies with

regard to any landing site you may be lining up to use, if horses are present.

Club Barbecue Steve Kynaston has kindly offered to host a barbecue at his home near Weston Rhyn, on Saturday 23

rd June, to

coincide with the PG Competition Weekend. The hope is that it will be a good flying day at Llangollen, from which

we will be able to fly the six klicks downwind (or via a huge triangle if you wish!) into Steve’s personal landing

field – where, I like to think, you can look forward to a foaming pint being thrust into your hand! Or you can just

drive there! The Club will provide the ale, salad and chips, etc., but bring your own choice of slabs of meat for the

bar-b-q. Of course, it will all depend on good weather, but watch the Club Members Forum for last minute

information.

Report of Club Annual General Meeting, 26 March 2007 The Chairman welcomed the 20 or so members present, and reviewed the past year of Club activity: a great year

for the hang gliders, especially Carl Wallbank who won the UK HG Championship, and also for several other HG

members who acquitted themselves well on the competition scene. Consistently wet and windy weather spoiled the

year for the paragliders, though a commendable number of XCs were flown, Dave Edwards showing everyone else

the way as usual. After a similarly wet and windy start to 2007, things are starting to look up with several flyable

days in March and April.

The Chairman reported that membership numbers, which dipped at the end of 2005, have recovered, and thanks to

those who have assisted in this recovery by facilitating on line membership joining and renewal. Club funds are

healthy, as are relationships with owners of our flying sites.

Andy Cartwright has fully recovered from his landing mishap last August. We have had some interesting speakers

at Club nights and the Newsletter has appeared quarterly but is sometimes a bit thin – contributions, please!

Secretary’s Report: Stu Harrison told the meeting that we had 98 paid up members at the time of last year’s

AGM: we now have 129, with five recently received and awaiting process. Stu was asked to prepare a ‘welcome’

letter to send to new members on joining, so they know that their application has been received and actioned. An

extra field will be added to the database, to record date of joining. Stu explained to the meeting why the Committee

had decided not to take on responsibility for the control of FLPA activities at Leasowe Common, as we had been

asked to do by the local authority. Our decision relating to that site has no affect of our activities at Thurstaston.

Treasurer’s Report: Doug Jones told the meeting that the year had started with £6837 in our current account. An

interest earning Savings Account had been opened at our bank during the last year, with an investment of £6000

and the year closed with the net worth of the Club being some £7300. A summary of Income / expenditure appears

at the foot of this Report. A detailed account for the year is available from the Treasurer.

Sites Officer’s Report: Steve Kynaston told the meeting that he and his team had visited landowners around

Christmas time and that all was well. However, he did ask fliers at Llangollen to avoid using the two bottom

landing fields nearest to the School when horses can be seen grazing in them: as ‘flight not fight’ animals, they are

far more sensitive (and far more valuable!) to our presence and passage than cows or sheep (this applies equally to

any landing site you may be lining up to use, where horses may be present).

Safety Officer’s Report: Dave Edwards was absent from the meeting, so there was no report.

Chief Coaches: Steve Hogan (HG Coach) and Jamie McRae (PG Coach) reported another quiet year, but a

willingness to help any new pilots who may join us, or members who wish to advance their pilot rating. Also,

Jamie’s offer of PG Tandem Pilot training during the summer still stands.

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Finally, Jamie reminded the meeting that we had agreed to support two members per annum to attend the BHPA

Club Coach Course. Interested parties are invited to apply, via the Chief Coaches.

Competetions: Matt Cook promised to arrange Club PG Competition weekends towards each month-end – see

following news item.

Website: Tim Salter reported that he is very close to completing the software which will permit online joining

(completed in early April) and will assist Stu Harrison in creating a new members ‘Starter Pack’ as an Adobe

downloadable file. Once the bulk of membership renewals have been processed, the two Membership Databases

(used by SH and TS) will be merged into a single up to date version. The Club Sites Guide is up to date, but the

Llangollen section of it is to be amended to mention awareness / avoidance of horses in landing fields.

Newsletter and Social Activities: JH reported the successful production of a quarterly Newsletter but made the

usual plea for articles / copy! We had enjoyed some interesting speakers, and recommendations for other speakers /

ideas for future meetings would be welcomed.

Matters for discussion proposed by Committee / by Members: There were none.

Election of Committee for the ensuing year: No other candidates had offered themselves for election and with all

other members of the Committee willing to continue for another year, the present Committee were duly re-elected.

Other Business

� It was agreed that the Club subscription would remain at £15.00.

� Steve Kynaston offered to host a Club barbecue at his home on 23rd June, the same weekend as the Club PG

competition. The hope is that winds will be favourable for as many as possible to arrive by air from Llangollen!

The Club will provide the ale! Watch the members Forum for more news.

� ‘Xuberance Weekend’ is an ‘Extreme Sports’ exhibition to be held at the Llangollen Royal International

Pavilion on the weekend of 9 / 10 June. Steve Kynaston hopes to get BHPA help and HG/PG Simulators for a

display, and if winds are from the north, we hope to be in the air and visible to visitors. Steve continues to liaise

with organisers and would welcome offers of help.

� Mike Rimmer mentioned the increasing popularity of ‘Speed Flying’ in Europe and its inevitable arrival here in

UK. The big danger appears to be that of fast landings. We are aware that BHPA has a sub-committee looking

into it and we await their guidance In the meantime and in the absence of a BHPA development licence and

insurance, we cannot sanction the activity at our sites.

The Meeting closed at 9.45pm.

Statement of Income / Expenditure for the year ending March 2007

Opening balance 6837.67

Income Membership Subscriptions 1757.31

Parachute Repack 195.00

Total 1952.31

Expenditure Site Fees / Rewards to Landowners 961.50

Newsletters, stationery 338.29

Speakers 40.00

Website maintenance 82.00

Total 1421.79

Surplus for the year 530.52 7368.19

To Savings Account during the year 6050.00

Balance in Current Account 1318.19

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FeaturesFeaturesFeaturesFeatures

Club Paragliding Competitions 2007 Matt Cook

I plan to run PG Competitions (weather permitting) from April until September, to take place the weekend

before club nights. So, make no other plans for these weekends ... April 28th or 29th May 26th, 27th, or 28th June 23rd or 24th July 28th or 29th August 25th, 26th, or 27th September 22nd or 23rd

There are quite a few Pilot rated folks in the club now, so I will be hoping to set a few XC tasks. To even things out a bit, I have devised a traditionally complex handicap system to try to level the chances out a little. I've

based it on each pilot's best distance from our club sites, which gives each pilot a handicap factor which will be used to multiply the distance by to give a score. For more information on these handicap factors see my entry

of (date) on the Club Members Forum.

Lanzarote – January 2007 Peter Barker

Glen Lears and I joined Andrew Donnison plus his brother Martin on a one week PG trip to Lanzarote. Martin is a

low airtime Club Pilot who trained with Jamie at Green Dragons and visited Lanzo. last year with them. Andrew is

a new Long Mynd Club Coach, flown several times in Spain and Chamonix but had yet to discover the delights of

the smooth coastal air of Lanzarote. (Andrew is probably best known for his excellent photography web site at

www.wingover.co.uk). We all flew out together from Birmingham one day late due to the bad weather at the

airport.

We were based in Costa Teguise, and met up with Ian Home who was showing the sites to Stuart Lloyd, Dave

Boughton and another Long Mynd member Nick Paine. Ian reported that they had flown the first two days and the

forecasts looked good for the week. As for the flying, we were lucky to fly every day on all the main sites including

Mirador for three days, which was a first flight on site for me despite several visits. The least successful day was

probably when we flew Famara from the very top. The wind was off the face but we managed a good hour before

going on to Soo where the wind, although strong, was more on the mini volcano and sand dunes. The best day of

all was when we flew at 1000 ft. out to sea above Mirador in very smooth air, then top landing to drive to Mala for

several flights out front and following the smooth thermals back over the top of takeoff.

Some nice late evening flights at Macha were memorable for the lack of crowds and some tight scratching along

the rock face. In the Geoff Dawson tradition, we held the annual top to bottom distance race, which was won by

Glen. Martin practised thermaling in not too crowded skies. He progressed more in one week than he had all last

year. Andrew took some stunning photos and video’s as well as gaining coaching experience with his brother. Glen

had one hairy moment when he was sucked into a gully whilst top landing. A strong thermal had popped up the

gully so he wisely went with it. This took him out along the side for a very long ride down the gully and along the

valley to the Mirador bottom landing. I achieved plenty of strong wind launching practise, much needed after my

layoff. It was a good week in good company - and a cheap winter break once again.

To anyone thinking of going next year perhaps, I would suggest hiring a Renault Kangoo type of vehicle with

plenty of ground clearance. Most of the tracks are getting very warn and the more modern cars no longer have the

ground clearance.

Next year - Southern Spain!

Flying in Alicante - January 2007 Phil Lawton

I am a weekend pilot and because I had not flown since last October due to the appalling weather, I

decided at short notice to get my fix by booking a week in Alicante with Nick at `Doyouwanna`. I had not

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been before but I had heard good reports from other pilots who had stayed with him so on 7th January, I

flew out from Liverpool having arranged to meet up with my pal Kenny at Alicante airport. Kenny lives

in Scotland and I met him when we were both trying to complete our CP with Terry Stubbs in Laragne -

but that’s another story.

We arrived in warm sunshine and were met by Nick, a loud and enthusiastic pilot who can be funny in

several languages! He drove us to our basic but comfortable villa, and arranged that we would call him at

9:00 am each morning for a weather report and where to meet. The first day was blown out so we used

the hire car to explore the area. Not much was open as it was out of season but it was good to walk around

in T shirts and feel the warmth of the sun.

Day 2: I had four flights at Palomaret: nothing epic, a few small broken thermals. Still, it was good to get

off the ground and become familiar again with forward launches. I was still getting used to my Nova

‘Mamboo’ which I’ve had for about six months. Palomaret is a great site, top driveable with a large easy

take off area. It gets very busy on good days and many of the locals go XC from here. I did have a scare

on my fourth flight today; my right brake line was twisted around the riser and became caught tight

between the lines. I weight shifted left and struggled to free the line but after a short while it was clear the

line was not going to budge so I headed for the landing field using weight shift only. I landed safely,

flaring with my rear risers. Lesson learnt - check the control lines are free running before launching.

Day 3: Went to a site called Del Cid today, very light winds, no

thermals so we did four 600m top to bottoms only. Again, good

to practice forward launches and to get familiar with the

‘Mamboo’.

Day 4: Back to Paloramet, where there was enough of a breeze

for reverse launches. Three more flights today and more

practice playing in the weak thermals. Plenty of sunshine, no

incidents and a cold beer at 5 o’clock. This beats going to

work!

Day 5: Paloramet again and my best day so far. I made three

flights in enough breeze for reverse launches and thermaling

conditions were better. I managed 430m above take off. More sunshine and beer. One of the Norwegian

pilots that we were flying with had a lucky escape today, he was thermaling too close to the rocks and

was forced to make an emergency landing. He was shaken but uninjured and could easily have smashed

into the mountain. He was a very good pilot and often flew the highest and was last to land. On this

occasion, he just pushed his luck.

Day 6: Not a good flying day at Paloramet

today, just managed three top to bottoms.

There was virtually no wind which made for

some very fast landings! The glide angle on

the ‘Mamboo’ is much better than my old

wing and the landing field falls away

gently, so I almost ran out of landing field

twice today! I also learned that I need to

take a wrap and flare hard on these nil wind

days.

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Day 7: Best day of the week! Today we went to a new site called Reconco. The first three pilots launched

and turned right for some ridge soaring: all found the same thermal and climbed above the ridge. All I had

to do was launch and get over to them as quick as possible so that I could play in the same thermal. I was

struggling to scratch across the ridge to join them, so reluctantly I cut out and headed for the landing field

which was a good way out in front of the mountain. I did not want to get too low and not make the

landing field. I was on a long glide and getting very low when my vario started to beep. I found myself in

a small thermal and stuck with it, gaining over 1000 ft in a single climb, my best thermaling ever! I was

now above the other pilots; they had lost their thermal and headed over to join me. I set off to explore and

found an even stronger thermal, climbing up to the inversion at 4750ft asl. I could have stayed up for

hours but I was cold and tired. Concentrating on staying in the thermal was hard work. Elated, I headed

for the landing field, doing 360os and gentle wingovers to lose some 700ft of height.

As it was the last day of the holiday, my pal Kenny decided to go XC as he had plenty of height. This was

at 4pm and he had to be at the airport for 7pm! Needless to say he missed his flight so had an extra day

ridge soaring at Santa Polo.

No epic flights but I flew on six days out of seven, and enjoyed good food, good company and got to

know my wing a little better. Nick is a great guide: he does his utmost to ensure that you fly. He is very

enthusiastic and very knowledgeable and his rates are also very cheap - 325 euros for accommodation,

guiding, and airport transfers. He will also include car hire if you need one. I would consider going back

but I am not sure when: there are so many other places on my long list of places I want to fly!

Commercials

I the last month, I have received a couple of commercial emails, apparently addressed to me as Chairman, and they

may interest you. The first was from an English couple who are now offering chalet accommodation for skiers and

fliers near Morzine, France. The other offers flying holidays and accommodation at Mayrhofen, Austria, with Kelly

Farina, GB paragliding squad member in charge of the flying.

For more information, please look at the websites: www.morzinemomentum.com and www.myerhofen-

experience.com

What’s on?

Not much to report – Club nights at BWSC on Monday 25th June, 30th July and 24

th September, but no speakers

arranged during the summer. See News for Club PG Competition weekend dates.

Club News and Information; contact details for all Club Officers, and a Membership application form, can be accessed on the Club Website at

http://www.nwhgpc.org.uk.

All paid up members of the club who provided a valid e-mail address at renewal time should also have received an e-mail invite to join the "members only"

area. If you have not received an invite and you feel you are eligible, please e-mail webmaster@nwhgpc.org.uk.

Contributions to this Newsletter are welcomed from any member. Ideally, please submit copy as a Text File or MS Word File on CD to Jerry Hazzard, Mill

Cottage, Mill Road, Bronington, Whitchurch SY13 3HJ or by Email / Email attachment to jerry@hazzard1936.fsnet.co.uk . If you are unable to provide text

in these formats, the editor is willing to type up your scripts from longhand! The editor reserves the right to correct grammar, syntax and spelling, and to trim

articles to fit page layouts.

This Newsletter is published quarterly, on/about the 1st of February, May, August and November. Articles / copy for inclusion in a Newsletter should reach the

Editor two weeks before publication date.

The views expressed in this Newsletter are not necessarily those of the Club Committee or Newsletter Editor, and any products advertised are not specifically

endorsed by the Club.

No part of this Newsletter may be reproduced without permission.