Fun flying at the farm

The wind on the hill was S-WSW today, so just before lunch we headed up from some tandem flights. Phil was first...

...and after launching we hung around a bit in the patchy lift before the wind swung slightly more to the west and mostly just blew along the ridge.

We landed, did the vehicle shuffle, and Heather was ready for the next flight.

The wind had picked up a little, and she was lighter than Phil, so pretty much as soon as I pulled the wing up she was lifted off the ground.

I tried to run forwards but was lifted into the air after a few paces as the wing started flying slowly forwards.

The slope at the top of the hill is a very gentle one, and although we touched down briefly once we were soon in the air flying out from the launch.

There was more lift during this flight and we climbed above launch height as we (slowly) headed out from the hill before landing in the valley.

Next a short flight with Phil from the top (wind had picked up slightly more, had difficulty controlling the wing while checking lines before we were attached) but once in the air it was all good. We got above launch and flew along the ridgeline some before landing on the top of the ridge further down (near the farm truck for an easy retrieve).

The wind had slowly increased still more and I decided to leave it for a while.

As the sun started to get low I headed back up with Dad for a final check and we arrived on launch to find the wind strength perfect but the direction slighty cross. Fine for launching, but the direction was the similiar to earlier in the day and just 10-15degrees more to the south would have caused a mega lift band out the front of the hillface, rather than small, ever changing patches of lift swinging around the peak of the hill and windy sink to fly through in front of the hill to get over the flats to the house.

The view on launch was amazing - the sun was about 15min from setting, the massive clouds deeper in the mountains were golden pink hues - half of the horizon looked like a movie set backdrop or a photoshopped postcard!

We launched into the smooth evening air and found the lift better than we expected - by soaring the crown of the hill we got up to 650m as the sun dipped down to touch the horizon and slip slowly over the edge.

The lift eased off and we slowly flew out from the hill, over the flats and down to land in front of the house. It wasn't a long flight, we didn't go very far, or high, or achieve any of the other big numbers that often make up a great flight - but it was great nonetheless.
The smoothness of the air, the sound of the wind in the lines, the unfamiliar viewpoint of familiar places in the last light of evening- combine that with the thrill of flying with my Dad (we've flown together before, but never as good a flight as this from the hill) and it all added up to pure magic. All the difficulties of paragliding become insignificant and forgotten when days and flights like this are possible!