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Hang gliding 2015 part 1

Hang glider: Wills Wing 145 U-2
Harness: Aeros Myth 2
In-flight camera: GoPro Hero 3+ Silver Edition

This page continues from Hang gliding 2014 part 2.

Richard M has a new sail for his ATOS rigid hang glider.

Richard’s ATOS aloft

Rigid hang gliders use aerodynamic controls (ailerons or spoilers) for roll control rather than weight shift. They have more performance than flexwing hang gliders and paragliders.

Ring your Bell

Turn point over Ibberton village, north Dorset

This was a windy day at Bell Hill in mid-May. I flew for just over an hour (I rarely fly for that long) gaining about 1,600 ft above take-off several times in large but weak thermals.

Five seconds and 180 degrees later

In the photo at right, another hang glider is soaring low (it looks low from here anyway) on the north (wooded) half of the hill.

Above the village of Belchalwell Street

With the top landing field unusable (the new farmer installed pigs and electric fences) tractors then started working in the main bottom landing field, so we nearly all (four out of five) landed in the adjacent field; a swamp with small power lines across the approach. I think all except one of us, who landed in a drier area, nosed over, but there were no injuries and only one broken glider.

Whump!

Ring, ring, a-Ringstead

I once read about a boy who lived in the farmhouse at the base of the take-off ridge at Ringstead and who grew up, moved away, and became a competition hang glider pilot. Over the years I have mentioned the story to people who ask about the flying there. It does have a certain poetic appeal. The last such occasion was the previous weekend: On a non flying day (as it turned out) I walked up from RAF Ringstead (the bottom landing field with its radar reporting room preserved from World War 2) with a hang glider pilot visiting from Australia. As we walked past that farmhouse I told that story. I had to admit that it was possible that I had imagined it.

However, on the day of these photos, I met that boy who became a top hang glider pilot! He was flying a new red and white Avian Rio 2. Oliver lives in the far north of England and was visiting his mother in the farmhouse below launch. (It is not in view in this photo. It is below the bottom edge.)