East Lomond practice day.

On Friday evening I was all set for a trip to the Hole of Horcum on Saturday for a round of the F3F winter league but it was cancelled early Friday evening. I had the car part loaded, batteries charged, sandwiches made up and alarm set for 3.15. Disappointed? Absolutely! Oh well, no need for an early start but Peter suggested anyone up for a fly should head for East Lomond about 10:00.

I arrived early and spotted three chaps heading up to the slope with paragliders. Two more paraglider pilots headed up to join the others. Hmmm… Peter arrived first followed by Dave and Robert. After some chatting we decided that with the 15mph wind well round to the south, south west we could fly from the shoulder of the hill before the gate which we did and it was excellent. There was a delay in me getting flying because I had decided to leave one model in the car and only carry my Ascot up the hill. Guess I should have taken the Ascot wings and not the Precision ones then! A walk back to the car was called for to collect the Ascot wings as well as the Precision fuselage and ballast. Two models to fly after all then!!

Peter flew his Freestyler 4 and his Stinger and they both went really well in the improving conditions. The occasional thermal really got the models going well.

A clean-shaven Dave flew his nippy Stinger and it was looking very competitive. Robert flew his recently acquired Fosa and it also looked fast and very smooth.

As the wind picked up we added ballast and the models all responded to the improving lift conditions. By this time the wind was too much for the paragliders and they headed off, leaving the main slope clear, but we were happy to stay where we were.

By mid afternoon we were all ready for a visit to the Pillars of Hercules for a coffee and a cake and look forward to our competition next Saturday.