24/08/2007 by Alan.

Summer holiday this year consisted of a week camping on north west coast of scotland

( Fort William & Gairloch - wester Ross ) followed by a inpromptu return to Turkey and Mount Babadag.

We had spent a family holiday there in 1992 and while sitting supping a beer at a beach side bar in Olu Deniz

a strange object dropped from the sky and crashed through a parasol just in front of us. It turned out to be a strange UFO which inaptly named at the time was a para”glider”. I turned to my wife and said ” I gotta try that “. And did , taking the opportunity to tandem from the 6000 ft mountain costing 60 squids.

Returning 15 years later, again as a family I brought along my paragliding gear. I decided that I would fit 2 or three Babadag trips around other family activities.

Very little has appeared to changed in this time . A few more paragliding organisations for tandem flights have appeared and the method of getting to the top has been improved upon,  now using trucks designed for off road driving

( trip used to consist of cramming into a 2 wheel  drive mini bus and sitting on the dash board to get enough traction at certain points to get to the top ).

Incidentally the cost of a tandem has not increased. ( still 55 - 60 pounds if booked direct  at agent ).

Anyways -

I had 3 flights during my stay with the first being from what I believe to be a new-ish launch site

nearer the top of the mountain. ( top photo ). This has A SLIGHTLY more ” COMMITTED ” Launch aspect compared with the lower original site -  steeper / shorter and In addition it’s rockier under foot.

 Wind Conditions were very light and  run off’s seemed to be the order of the day .

  Having previously spent time doing zero - 1 knot reverse launch training with Murray I felt confident that I would not have too much difficulty in launching . BUT still felt apprehensive due to the new site plus the volume of tandem pilots laying out, lining up and launching. I decided to find my own little spot away from the masses , laying out  and checking my kit.

   Once clipped in I did a couple of inflations which indicated that the wind although at ground level was approx zero at wing height was enough to boost confidence. With no thermals and no significant wind changes expected I launched when ready taking a right beat away from the tandem launchers. Flight was as expected , 30 mins with no events, thermals or ridge lift.

Second and third flights were from the lower launch site which I much prefered being less rocky underfoot with a gradual slope for launch . During my second flight ( at approx 3 pm ) I was hoping that the conditions would be thermic having witnesses a couple of pilots achieving significant height above launch an hout earlier . This was after a phase where towering cumulus seemed to kick-off in and around the mountain tops. ( happened quite often around 2 pm. ). No joy other than a couple of small thyermals which extended my flight to approx 45 mins. I also took the opportunity to do spirals and wingovers. Third flight was similar again but later on in the day @ 6-ish . This did surprise me , the wind on top had picked up to around 7-8 kts giving good soaring conditions and unlike the the tandems I took the opertunity to use it . Unexpectedly the thermals were also kicking in . I put this down to the change in temperature with the low level air and ground still retaining heat but the air temp in and around 6000 ft had dropped considerably over the last 2 hours. I hung around ridge soaring for 30 mins then headed out down to land and meet with the wife and son for a bite to each down at Olu Deniz .

perfect finish to a good flight , food and beer in good company

To finish I would certainly recommend Olu Deniz as a place to visit either for flying or a holiday , OR BOTH.

we personally stayed in Hisaronu 3 miles inland which is livelier than Olu Deniz and easily accessible with mini buses every couple of mins.

As far as getting to the top of the mountains concerned just walk the beach front and ask the tandem guys if they have room for a solo pilot as there is a jeep going up every 20-30 mins. It costs 20 YTL ( 8 squids ) for the lift.

happy and safe flying to all

alan c

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04/06/2007 by Alan.

Fantastic day yesterday. Even although while looking at the weather
In the morning I thought this was going to be a DIY day.
It was still worth the drive down from Aberdeen to Fife as some time could have been spent on theory if conditions were poor.

On arrival at East Lomond conditions were humid , hazy with very light winds. This turned out to be a very  educational day. By the time we reached the top the sun was although not breaking through was managing to heat the ground as small thermals were popping through.

Murray: “IR passes through the clouds, like certain types of glass IR can pass one way (in to the greenhouse/room) but not out… the reason for this is the ‘frequency shift’…. IR direct from the sun is (from memory) a higher frequency than the IR radiated back to space from the ground, hence on a cloudy night the local air temp/world remains warm while on an otherwise identical night but with no cloud cover the temp drops rapidly and a frost can occur, all due to the (lower frequency) IR radiated from the ground being reflected by the cloud cover back to the ground i.e. ‘trapped’ … on the clear nite it simply radiated back into space and is lost..

So in summery, cloud cover (daytime when out flying) will reduce the temp ‘contrast’ so it feels LESS hot in hazy sun than if it was direct sun this generates thermals low down/ground level but far less punchy. As the PG pilot gets higher the strength of the RISING thermal is more to do with the actual (environmental) lapse rate, so thermals rising into cooler air speed up ‘get stronger/puncher’.” :END    

I spent some time testing the air and trying to get a feel for the thermals and
Change in wind direction prior to take off. It was surprising how in such
Light conditions ( ridge lift that is ) how much the wind direction and strength changed
over such a short period of time swinging from south easterly through to southerly in seconds. 
Meaning standing on the top plateau my Nova Pheron was nodding left to right almost like a
Metronome. In addition tension on risers were changing so much that I had good practice
At reversing and controlling frontal collapses. Although not perfect at this I’m sure My DHV 1 Nova Pheron was not helping. ( think I need to cut the wing tips off -  Murray get the old Singer looked out  )

Murray :”This yaw of the wing (and on low DHV wings significant roll due to tip curving down) is a classic indicator of a light wind lifty thermal condition and required a diffrent approach to launching TIMING than a variable wind ‘ridge lift day’” :END

Most flights were generally short from top with hill side landings just below the plateau.
( even Murray on the odd occation didn’t manage a top landing )
At about 2pm The sun managed to squeeze through for 30 mins and the cycles changed for a while with increased thermal activity. 

One specific flight, where my launch timing was right ( more good luck than judgement )  I flew straight into a decent thermal which took me up about 100 ft I rode out about 3 or 4 punchy small thermals which allowed me to stay about at take off height until a large cycle ( large for the day that was ) came through which took me to approx 600 ft above take-off for a nice 20 minute flight.

Who would have thought yesterday was flyable

Alan c

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19/04/2007 by Alan.

Up Bright and early as usual, reminding myself that it is a Saturday so filling up with 2 caffeine shots would suffice. Switched on the Beeb to check the 7:25 news and weather pressing ON Button @ my PC before returning to kettle to do same. This is an ideal time as my PC boots up in same time as kettle takes to boil 1 cup “o” water. ( Yes , I did have a slight “ vino del collapse “ hang-over )

METO Site showed very light winds for the day pointing towards the Glens and no rush to bother Murray at such an early hour.  Plus time to let reality kick in……. Car was already loaded up in anticipation and also on the off chance that during the week Nigg would present a possible hours lunch time flying.

After my usual 10 minute call to Murray to review MET and general chat I Headed off  South from Portlethen around 11:30 – ish towards CLOVA and coming across Murray drying his wing in the morning sunlight at the head of the Glen. The 2 of us then convoyed up to Clova Hotel but left My car on-route in case of down valley flights.

We then hiked up 1/3 of the way towards Loch Brandy level and “tried the air“. Small thermals were cycling through with Murray managing to stay aloft, but yours truly still had the habbit of flying with tooo Much brake and tooo far our from hill.

When venturing further on and across the path towards the plateau conditions improved with regards thermals and wind strength, which was expected. Joy, the vario began to sing and the 2 of us flew for a few hours with me being restricted on height due to heavy hands (approx 900 ft above the plateau) and Mr Hay managing to punch through the inversion at approx 1500 ft above the plateau.

The day was finished off, after ‘jumping’ back to a void the long flat walk, with a great top to bottom flight from t/o next Loch Brandy, to landing in the field out front of the Hotel.

Perfect finish, with a cold Guinness to re-fresh at the hotel before heading back north.

Posted in Club days in the Scottish Glens | No Comments »