Skim12 speed flying Fochriw 40mph winds!!!

This vid is me flying the Skim12 at Fochriw in South Wales. The winds in the compression on the hill are around 40mph!!! I have flown this wing on the same site in 36mph (confirmed) winds but the lift today was something else. Had a collapse but all ended well. You can work out how strong the conditions are by the fact I launched at the base of the hill on the very shallow section and the wing, 12m2 loaded at 95kg+, went right up in the air also my landing was with almost no ground speed.
Pushing the limits of our sport.
Enjoy
Dan

Category:

Sports

Tags:

• skim
• 12
• speed
• flying
• paragliding
• gliding

[daveleeeeee]

Dude, You f*cking ROCK!!! That is sooooo cool. I want one. I've been flying "normal" paragliders for 13 years and have literally worn out 4 gliders, including 3 comp gliders. I f*cking hate it when my ridge gets blown out. I think this is a natural progression. I've read many of your posts on the forum and I take my hat off to you for being civil to all the nay-sayers. You have more patience than I have. I'd really dig flying with you, man. Cheers,

-Dave

[0eden0]

Cheers Dave, its nice to have support for a change rather than someone with a 1000hrs on a 30m2 wing trying to tell me how to fly my 10m2 wing. Im noticing more and more threads and posts on the PG forum about speedflying lately. It will never be mainstream but its getting more popular that's for sure. Off to the Alps in two weeks, some big 6000ft descents for me!!!!!!!!!! Cant wait 

[0eden0]

This isn't a paaglider glider it is 12m2 flat 9.8m2 projected speed wing. It will not soar in anything under 25-28mph depending on the slop angle, I would happily meet you on the hill and let u try to fly it in 15mph winds. I can back my claim with a local flying school CFI who has videoed me flying the same site, in wind below 28mph I sunk out and its on vid. I don't bullsh## people.

[0eden0]

It was a pretty extreme flight I can tell you! At lest it answers one of the questions relating to how these micro gliders react to collapses. It did amazingly well. Not something I would do every day though :-)

Downwind landing would be a little hard to run out :-)

[bg929]

Awesome stuff Dan, time to get a 7m2 wing for those 70mph days!

What did you say at the end of the video??

[rootbeershaman]

Have you ever flown a speedwing, Martin? I didn't think so. True, a regular paraglider would have that kind of groundspeed in 15mph winds, but not speedwings. I have a 16m Bobcat and I can tell you its trim speed at 105kg is about 30-35 mph. He might be lighter but he's got a 25% smaller wing, so the wing loading and thus forward speed would likely be a little higher. Considering he landed with groundspeed at less than 5 mph, the wind was at least 25-30mph.

[gregthewolf]

nice one man. so u been flying much this summer? still flying most days on my nano13 in nz back to uk in oct i wanna fly north wales u been flying atound there much?i had 3 collapses in one light n they arent much fun but the wing is so pressurised they recover well... thank god!take it easy

[metallimacca]

You're a braver man than me...granted it's a speed wing, but mine would've gone back in the bag (if it ever came out at all) and I'd be off to the pub! Glad you were safe. Happy days :0)

[martinwelshman]

Havin flown paragliders and other aircraft since 1986 around these valleys I can assure watchers that this paraglider was not flown in 40 mph Winds. More like 15mph

[bradl45]

Excellent height gain on your slope with a 12 glider.

Great job