News

Cornwall

The good news is that I collected my Bailey 175cc paramotor on Monday. It is fixed. One of the bearings had broken resulting in quite a bit of damage. This was what caused the vibrations at 1,500ft a few weeks back. Basically, the engine had to be rebuilt and the crankshaft was also replaced for […]

Big Fat Repack

On Sunday 22nd March I drove to Reading with Ben to learn how to repack our reserve parachutes at the Annual Thames Valley Club ‘Big Fat Repack’. I was very impressed with the organisation and we both learnt a huge amount. The day started with a lecture which showed us not only the basics of […]

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mini out and return

Tuesday, 17th March. Light easterlies and blue skies. It was perfect. I got to the site at Mercury at 11am. There were about 9 other paragliders and a couple of hangies there. The wind was about 10-12mph and several pilots were not launching but I felt it was all right. Lovely ridge soaring to begin […]

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Skiing to work in London!

Last night I was up at 4am… I looked out of the window and there was a deep blanket of snow outside with large flakes falling! I have not seen this much snow since I was about 10 years old when we really did have cold winters! Gosh, that makes me sound old! So… I […]

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Winter Flying (9th January)

Ben and I drove down through the mist from London to Hampshire. I doubted that we would be able to fly at all – the forecast had promised sun but here we were in thick mist in the car! We passed the South Downs by Butser Hill and the skies cleared in front of us… […]

Happy New Year

The New Year kicked off well with high pressure drifting down from Scotland giving us a few days of cold, clear and crisp weather with some sunshine. I managed to fly on New Year’s Day and on the following day at Mercury in Hampshire, as the winds were from the East. What a wonderful way […]

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150k from Portsmouth to Dorset

For some time, I have wanted to fly from my mother’s house in Denmead, near Portsmouth, to Cattistock in Dorset, where my parents-in-law live. I needed a light easterly air flow to take me there on my 4-stroke engine and it needed to be a weekend preferably. Last week, the forecast looked perfect and on […]

Himalayan bivi flying (Brad Sander)

The Way Back from Brad Sander on Vimeo. This style of flying rocks! Check out Brad Sander who flew from Hunza, bivouac-style to Mastuj. He was with John Silvester on his Ozone Addict 2, north ridge of Rakaposhi then with an eagle before landing at 4,100m in an amazing SE facing huge meadow. The next […]

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70 miles in the clouds

Ben and I took a day off last Friday 29th August. We had planned a round trip from Denmead. The forecast was good and it promised sunshine. Sadly we got no sunshine but low cloud instead – we decided to go for it as the winds were light… I took off first and had not […]

Shining TOR

It was another top Bank holiday… Diana, Sebastian and I travelled up to Hathersage in the Peak District to stay with Michael and Mary. On arrival there were a number of paraglider pilots flying (as I suspected there would be!) at Eyam Edge. We got up there and I was too ill to even get […]