Speed flying ground launching South Wales

[Superterminal]

Very nice flying... Did you put the rear trim on there for the first landing?

[SonOfRojBlake]

Looks, er... exhilarating. But given the lack of snow and skis, what the hell do you do if you have a little altercation with the ground on the way down??

[0eden0]

If you cant fly a canopy to the point where you can control your altitude over the ground you shouldnt be flying a speedwing. Speedwings are fast and sink out! Its all about energy management on speedwings. They have very limited energy retention so you must always fly them hands up, speed give you options. But to answer your question simply, an altercation with the ground results in you getting hurt if youre lucky and death if youre not. Not for everyone but simple as. cheers

[SonOfRojBlake]

Righto. I've just seen a couple of other speedflying videos (the Eiger one in particular), where the pilots occasionally touch down briefly. The margin for error in such cases would seem to be EXTREMELY small between missing the touchdown entirely and having it be a good deal harder than you could deal with. That goes double if you're not skis!

[0eden0]

Obviosuly you dont touch down during the flight if you not on skis but your 100% right, margins are small if you fly low.

[0eden0]

Ye they did run a little but they were all fine. We stayed high not to spook them.

[FegrusMojo]

Cool vid !! Even the sheep got some exciting excercise that day :)

[murrayhay]

Hi Fergus, this is one of our fav locations for training/flying with Dan (another Dan) & his wife Vic when I am down in Wales.

To the west of here (bend in the valley) is the east facing slope we sometimes soar in a WEST wind... the air is drawn up slope by the lowering in (static) pressure from the prevailing west wind flowing over the top of the valley!

On a good day simply launch from next the (embanked) road and work the lift up and then out mid valley to Lee side thermals :-)