a flight for the hg nev almond monday 167miles straight line

[gary stenhouse]

Nev Almond done it on Monday:

----------
The flight was from Milk Hill (near Devizes) to Cley next to Sea on
the Norfolk coast, about 20 miles east of the Wash.
The straight line distance was 167 miles, with the final turnpoint
around a mile out to sea.
The distance with two intermediate turnpoints (that the UK XCL allows)
should be closer to 175-180 miles, as I deviated east from the
intended goal north of Skegness as the trough came in from the west
and started shutting the sun down. Base started at 4000ft, rose to
4600ft, with a small blip to 6000ft+ at the north sea coast in
convergence.
The flight was a mix of some amazing fast strecthes (like 10-20
minutes straight-lining at 50-60 Mph airspeed), some tip-toeing in the
blue to get around airspace, and a few moments lucking out very low in
big blue holes.
Landing was frightening, with the remnants of a mild sea breeze being
present, and the wind switching everywhere, I simply could not
determine which way to land - I couldn't even find a tree sheltered
paddock to negate the wind, so in the end I bisected SW (Wind) and N
(Sea Breeze) and lucked out with a crosswind landing (damage
limitation, worked well).
Back home at 2:15am, a big improvement on my jaunt to Liverpool a few
years back..

[ron freeman]

Good flight but.. Nev flies an Atos rigid wing which has a lot more speed & performance compared to a hangglider.

I liked crack about landing & wind direction, these wings cut through the wind as if it its not there so any landing into wind is a big bonus..

[gary stenhouse]

even with a rigis wing it is one hell of a flight as the one thing that has changed more than anything in the last 20 years is airspace and it makes cross country flying a whole lot more difficult. 167miles with a turn point a mile out to sea. awsome that is like a flight from coast toas and back in the north east of england

[steve-gill]

Great flight. Where did you find this Gary? Looked on UKNXCL, and its not on there.
Do you get much flying on your rigid Ron?

[gary stenhouse]

http://www.uknxcl.co.uk/FlightFiles/Mapping.php?id=8322

hi steve this is the link to his flight and you can then view it in google earth from this

cheers Gary

[ron freeman]

copy

[ron freeman]

Gary.. how can flying XC these days be more difficult due to more airspace ? pilots have GPS these days so I don't see a problem

[gary stenhouse]

i think having new airspace with means you cant just blast down windband follow the lift lines, so much more technical cross wind flying as well as flying bellow levels etc. also now to be a valid xc you need minimum 2d track log proving you did not have any infringements of airspace as years ago you could easily blag a flight and y you got to from a to b without touching airspace

cheers gary

[ron freeman]

Makes you wonder how many pilots flew 100 mile flights without GPS 20 years ago ? only using take off & landing witness's.. mind you its a long way to carry your glider for your retrieve to pick you up