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Quote: Full of tales of broken lines and ground handling errors. Advice heard by no-one but the head-honcho himself.

Murray: During the day when necessary pilots were advised as to the issues both with the surface (exposed rocks) and the location of hazards (buildings/radio mast) in addition to the need to avoid the almost flat top area once the wind started picking up towards the end of the day. Are other posts/comments “full of tales of broken lines and ground handling errors?” Or do they simply mention in addition to the fantastic smooth and mellow flying the occasions when some lines were damaged and a pilot was dragged, in both cases due to location.

 Regarding ‘broken lines’ (as apposed to damaged outers) this was my understanding based on Joe’s comments made later as to “a few lines needing replaced”when he got in touch for my advice as to the best supplier of replacment line (Mike at The Loft).

Quote: Unseen maps and weather info.

Murray: Both were available at the pickup (on the hill top) and a number of the pilots in fact had their copy of the map in their harness/flying suit. NB. It is rare that we are out on the hills and I do not have printed weather information to hand in addition to the mobile internet access for updating the information.

Quote: Saving a pilot by talking him down on the radio.

Murray: Nairn (ex-BHPA student) has been flying and training with me for four months and has considerably more flight time and experience than many BHPA CP’s with several years in the sport, regarding this day it was only on the last flight, due to it’s new nature (first time ‘over the back’) and freshening conditions that he, as we had discussed was now flying with a radio as a back up should there be any problems with the mix of air we expected to find over the landing area. I would guess that Joe’s comments regarding Nair’s last flight may have been otherwise phrased if he had been more aware of the amount of training already undertaken. Nairn has a few ‘intresting’ stories about a certain Scottish BHPA school, familiar to Joe, his comments on their safety standards tend to match what I have heard from others including Joe….

Quote: Alas poor Iain however was not so lucky. He did indeed fall victim to a short scoot across the top of the hill. Granted, that part of the day is actually true. True, but not the full story. Unfortunately, because his ability sometimes takes a good kicking from his confidence, he does occasionally ask for a little assistance in high winds. Nothing wrong with that. Is there?

Murray: Joe asks the question on assistance, “Nothing wrong with that. Is there?” the fact remains that in the majority of cases “assistance” will in fact lead to the addition of extra “forth force” (or thrust) to the aircraft and as a result greatly increases the dynamic problems a pilot faces, human nature makes those near a pilot being dragged reach for the pilot/harness rather that assist by killing the wing.

This type of situation is of an even greater potential risk when the surface is snow or sand, a point I keep highlighting in safety training and had specifically covered that day.

Quote: On a more serious note, what I do wonder is, why every single person who did launch on Sunday suffered at least 1 big collapse?

Murray: Clearly I can not comment on Joe’s statement about “every single person” other than wonder why, if it is true, the individuals concerned did not mention this to me then or when speaking personally or on the phone subsequently when arranging this weekends training/flying, only Ian Archer on being specificaly asked (he was back up the hill in the landrover when I had landed so I only spoke to him today) said that he had encountered a number of collapses, he also commented that he would have no problem flying the same flight again in the future.

To the best of my knowledge both Alan & Duncan, who had decided to fly around via the north side encountered some minor ‘mixed air’, just as they expected, both are experienced pilots Duncan having re-trained back in 2003 and Alan over the last year. The ‘mixed air’ i belive was while over/near the wood at the back of the hill but based on comments to me nothing that caused any concerns to them. Chatting to Duncan Thursday, while aranging this coming weekends meet, he stated he in fact did not have any collapses… and with less lift at the time had landed on the east side rather than ‘over the back’. 

Quote: On an even more serious note (For those that haven’t been paying attention, that’s two serious notes in one article. One more and it’s called a rant) there does seem to be a difference of opinions as to the cause of the problems. Call it what you will, rotor, wave, wind-shear, whatever. There were definite wave patterns over the cairngorms. I definitely saw 2 pilots being forced down in their initial attempts to get over the back. Yes, there was a lot less wind in the valley than higher up on the ridge. That tends to be a major feature of being in the lee-side of the hill. Personally, I reckon there were indications of all three. But, what do I know? Air-detectives make your own mind up.

NB. At no time was there any indication of wave below and in the lee of Morone, from ten years experiance flying in these sorts of conditions/locations I would not expect either wave that low, nor rotor from such a smooth rounded ground shape.

Quote: Also, I wouldn’t imagine for a minute that ‘ he who wants to be obeyed’ would intentionally put anyone in harms way. However, the decision to allow a very low airtime pilot with less than a months experience……

Murray: I get BHPA ‘trained’ pilots coming to me with less than 5 hours airtime (often over several years) and they are regarded by the BHPA as “qualified”… while Nair (ex-BHPA) in FOUR months training and flying with me has flown on 15 days and is probably on about 30 hours airtime so far.

Quote: When you consider that trying to teach a beginner how to do big-ears via the radio is hard enough but to do so in such extreme turbulence and rapidly failing daylight and then have them attempt steep 360 degree turns with big-ears pulled in to get down, it really does call into question ones sanity.

Murray: It would do if that was in fact the case, as it happens it was not, I don’t know where Joe gets “steep 360 turns” from when in fact Nairn was doing 360’s and at times simple turn reversals, simply to remain over the same general area while descending in Big Ears, once he was below the lift from the ridge on the east side of the valley and into the near calm air it was a simple straight ‘no wind’ glide across the valley, passing with plenty of clearance over the river (to save the walk) to land next to me.

NB. as indicated by the shape of his path over the ground and down/into wind ground speed (during 360* turns) the wind speed Nairn was in was about 10kts while over the valley at height. 

Quote: Although, despite appearances to the contrary, we are NOT actually paid up card carrying members of the ESPC club, Iain and I have always been happy to meet up when invited and have had many a good day with some of the guys in the club. After this post, I doubt that it will be happening again any time in the near future.

Murray: I seen no reason why Joe & Ian would not be invited many more times in the future should they wish, both are safe in the air and are good company on the ground, the only concerns I ever have, have always regarding ground handling/layout & launch choices, exactly as I stated in my comment to Duncan’s post and in my own post.

Quote: However, it is hoped for the sake of safety, especially the fee paying publics’, that lessons from the day will be taken on board. Murray is a good instructor when he sticks to what he knows. As I’ve always said, ‘if you want to develop your ground handling Murray’s yer man.’ For everything else you have to make your own mind up.

Murray: In this as everything pilots should and will make their own choices, provided they are prepared to live (or not!) with the likely consequences, on that note personally I would never advise training that generates the accident, injury & death rates produced by the BHPA, I do not expect everyone in the sport to agree and as such no doubt sport wide we will continue to see the sort of accident rate I find totally unacceptiable.

Quote: Just a suggestion, perhaps actual training activities should be kept to smaller hills where local knowledge is greater and the conditions more forgiving. At least until the CFI has a little more experience on the larger hills.

Murray: Suggestions are always welcome, however with many 100’s of hours flying in the mountains in the Glenshee area, both solo and tandem, over the last ten years it is hard to see how much ‘more’ could be needed.

Quote: P.S I was going to include some photos of the day but every one I looked at had Murray in them. How does he do that?

Murray: Probably because I spent the day either tandem flying or assisting/checking pilots at the (advised!) take off location and often again at the retrive/LZ and the camera was pointed where the most activity was going on!

Murray Hay

Hi Guys

My 2p worth was an absolute fantastic fun day. The site was absolutely stunning (the photos don’t do it justice) and we all got plenty of flying time. My first solo flight was going great until I went for an extra beat along the hill. This resulted in a lower than intended landing…. which actually reads …long sodding walk back up the hill!! However I did learn from that and all subsequent flights resulted in intentional higher landings (ie less walking) which I was really chuffed about. Under murray’s watchful eye, my confidence is growing all the time and ground handling is starting to show signs of competence … although a lot more practice is needed. The final flight was originally intended to be down into the northern valley but an increase in wind strength knocked that idea on the head. Murray offered a tandem flight down with the others but I was very aware of the wind strength and my genereal fatigue levels so i decided to call it quits & drive the pick up down instead. With hindsight this was a wise choice following the Nairns exploits :)) It just goes to show, you should always follow your instincts … !!

As fate would have it this decision meant I was on hand to “assist” Ian with his drag moment. Now I know why we wear helmets!!

The drive home was another 3 hours in the dark in my open top westfield se7en with no heater …. the suicidal deer had me going but was nothing compared to the black ice moment near kirkmichael …. i was grinning all the way home. Fleece-lined flight suits are just as good in se7ens as they are in flight …… ebay is your friend :))

Many thanks to Murray & the rest of the guys for their patience with the newbie.

Jonathan
PS – Come on guys, where’s all the photos :)))

I had a call from Ian Archer on Saturday morning to see if I was heading out. Looking up at the Haar in Aberdeen I knew there was a better chance of flying if we headed inland and up to the West! I was thinking the east side of Morrone near Braemar.

I mentioned Morrone to Ian, a new site for him. We discussed Mount Blair so I packed my wing and headed off with Mac the Dog down the A90 and met up with Ian at his place, a nice Timber Cabin in the woods, excellent.

We headed over to an East facing site near Mount Blair that Ian had flown with Murray, but I wanted to stick to the original game plan. We drove past Mount Blair and on to the Glenshee car park. The wind was blowing up from Braemar, so wrong direction for the Bowl.

We drove into Braemar and went round to the Duck Pond. Ian was not keen on the tab up, so we went round to the road access side. The gate was locked and Ian looked for a way up in his 4 x 4 but no luck.

We walked up the path and laid out on the right hand side of the hill. The plan was to jump to the east side of Morrone. I took off first and floated down the road a bit. Ian took off and landed further down the path. I walked up higher and took off again, this time jumping the gap (Murray would be proud of my slot landing).

Ian was still on the ground so I headed higher and further round the east side of Morrone. I spotted the antler (pictured) in the heather up to the front and packed the item in my harness. No messing around on the landing I thought as this would push through the material and into my back!

I laid out on a flat part near the top of the hill and started my checks from the start as I was hot and flustered. Take it back to the start I said to myself, take off the gear and lay the wing out. It is worth doing this if you have the wing over your shoulder and are walking up the hill for an extended period of time!

Pulled the wing up and I was up, up and away, the vario screaming out. The thermals were strong and I was going up at a fair old rate. I flew towards Braemar and got well above the summit. After half a hour looking at the views around Braemar (I saw a herd of Red Deer but no “Buck with one Antler”!) I drifted back over Ian who was well below me. I did several 360’s and realised I was still going up, so I flew out of the lift zone and back towards Ian and landed a few yards from him.

Conditions had picked up but I had enjoyed the flight. I was glad to be on the ground again. The speed bar setup that Murray assisted with was fine but in discussion with him I should have pulled Big Ears to get down.

Fly safe and we’ll see you on the hill soon!

Duncan

An early drive up on Friday ensured a couple of pints at the Kingshouse before bedtime.No point in taking unneccessary risks, what? There were red deer in the car park, hand tame, presumably looking for food , but nonetheless an enchanting sight in the moonlight. If omens exist, this must have been one of the best.

A cold night, frosty in the morning sun, promised at least the chance of thermals even if the forecast was for high pressure and the “glass ceiling” that often entails. By half past eight Murray and I were at the chair lift, decided not to have a cup of tea and a bacon sandwich at the ski centre, and headed up to Creag Dubh.

We were early. It was sunny. There was very little wind. These are the conditions I find it virtually impossible to reverse launch in. These are some of the conditions Murray loves to reverse launch in. He took off, and flew away. I stayed on the ground after three botched attempts at taking off.

I was still there when Murray reappeared for his second flight; I felt quite chilled, as in relaxed, and let him go off again. I reasoned that if it was so light as to make launch so marginal for me, then conditions probably weren’t soarable, and a fly down was all I was going to get, and I was still there when loads of ather people with big rucksacks started walking past me, right up to the top of Creag Dubh. I sidled up that way since I was feeling silly, and vulnerable, and kind of camouflaged myself in the middle of them. I chatted to a couple of people, and I remembered days on the hill in the peak district, and even spoke to a couple of people from the D.S.C. which club I began flying with straight after I completed training with Peak Paragliding at the end of the eighties.

But still no flying for me, and not for many others either, but as usual, Murray kept appearing and disappearing with a rather monotonous regularity which did not bode well for the poor lass at the top of the chairlift. I myself fell for her, and I made her laugh, which I took as a good sign. Murray said it was more to do with the wet patch on my arse where I landed after said fall. Embarrassing.

But it was all still very quiet up on the tops, and noon drifted past at about the same rate as the cumulous which were appearing sporadically over the summits. The wind, what there was of it, backed, then veered, then backed again, although there was a fairly steady 8 knot Nor Easterly at car park level. There was an inversion at 500 feet-ish above the bottom station, according to Murray, up until about three o’clock, when it all kicked off, according to the gaggle that went hurtling skyward as I was packing up my glider in the car park after my first landing. Joe and Ian had turned up and gave me a hand to to an alpine launch, just as the wind semed to be dropping again. Turned out I just, just missed the start of the best thermal conditions of the day, but it put me in a good enough position to view it all.

After that, I changed gliders, from the Xenon26 to an Xray20, because it did actually feel bubbly on the way down, and I’m still a bit light on the Xenon. Joe, who’s in the mountain rescue team at Killin, gave me an elastoplast by way of broad hint, after my ‘sky diving’ at Glenshee a few months ago, and I decided  on a respectful approach to these early thermals.

Back on the tops, I mixed in with the hordes of gliders that were mixing like midges way over the tops and out the front. Distant groups were skying out a couple of thousand feet above me, over Leacann nam Braonan, and also later on, over Sron na Creise. I got into some good thermal, but I wasn’t coring it properly. Still, flying without a vario wasn’t really giving myself the best of chances in that department, so I wasn’t too bothered.

It continued excellent thermal flying for perhaps two hours. I came down because I lost the lift, promptly finding it again over the car park, and following a series of wingovers, and going to the edge of a spiral dive, managed to touch down within four feet of my selected spot, albeit a bit off balance.

Murray landed a few minutes afterward, having foolishly followed me down. Joe was already fixing himself a brew, but it wasn’t till twenty minutes afterward that Ian Aitchison followed his grin in to land after a damn good 41 minutes (on that flight). Despite a very late start, I think everyone must have had a great time that afternoon, and to judge from the standard facial expression at the bottom landing, delight was probably closer the mark. Murray has to post his own comments on this one though, because our opinions are somewhat from different perspectives if not at actual variance. Something to do with car arrivals or some such, I dunno. You know who you are.

After 3 weeks of solid rain, the old clyde puffer and myself having an extreme case of cabin fever and an even bigger case of red wine had had enough. No more talking the talk, we declared that, once again, it was time to walk the walk, fly the fly or, put  simply, feck-off and see if the big boys would let us play with them. But, where to go? What to do? A plan was needed. And fast.
    We had talked briefly about staying local, flying our usual sites in the Tarmachans or Killin, but fancied a wee change, and thought it high time we spread our wings a little further afield. So, we checked the forecasts, consulted Iain’s corns, looked out the window and said ‘ah feck it! It’s Scotland let’s take it as it comes.’ It did look like we would get  better weather the further north and west we went though. An easterly wind then pointed us in the direction of the White Corries. A place I’d had my eye on for a while. This was ok for me, but Iain reckoned that all those skiers watching us might just give him a dose of Murryitis and cause him to ‘fluff it’. That of course would be far too embarrassing for a couple of ‘cool dudes’ like what we are. With that idea then unceremoniously binned, a definite re-think was required. Discussing it over a quick phone call, we set out the challenge. The rules were simple. It had to be big. It had to be quiet. It had to be easy and, above all else, it had to have a pub within landing distance.
That left us with only one option. Beinn a chrulaiste, a big whaleback shaped lump of a hill lying directly behind the Kinghouse hotel.

  
Ben-Crusty! In my minds eye I could see the blog report now
Captains log: Start date 24 march 2007.
Your mission Joe (should you choose to accept it) To boldly go where no-one else can be arsed!
         

 But, hey-ho. A jump’s a jump as Mr Carr would say. So that was it sorted then, and on Friday, night phone calls exchanged to check who we could drag out and a wee note left on the forum to tease all those we couldn’t and off we went.
 

     Arriving in the Coe about 8:30 first port of call, after putting the tent up, (well, every drunk needs somewhere to stagger back to) was the ‘Kingy’, – reputedly scotland’s oldest Inn.

   
      As an aside, it has to be said that I am getting a wee bit worried about old parahandy. For years he’s been tighter than lycra on a ‘weegie’s’ arse. You know of whom I speak. You see them walking down Callander’s main street every Saturday, bag of chips in one hand, irn-bru in the other; legs like a bag of marbles. Now it seems he’s found the key to his purse strings and gone all para-dandy on us. Take Fri’ night in the bar for instance. Gone were the years of sitting quietly in a corner with a half pint shandy or a jug of 70 shilling reminiscing about bygone days when he was Scotland’s answer to Don Whillans. In were the bottles of Becks and budweisers! Combine that with a clean fresh shirt and there are definite undertones of a mid-life crisis.

      
        Last month also saw a nice new trendy Montane top added to his wardrobe and this month a new variometer. I reckon that’s just so he has something else to blame for the high pitched banshee type noises so often accompanying his take offs. I eventually did manage a bit of a snigger to myself on Saturday however when he left it switched on while walking up the hill. I always thought they were supposed to go Beep, beep, beep. Not ……Beep……………beep……………beep………..cup of tea….beep……change your top…………beep………..check the wind………beep………photo stop………….beep.

Joe Heads for the Bar

If you haven’t been there Beinn a chrulaiste is the hill lying just north of the  Kinghouse hotel. Our approach being from the track junction at the corner of the old road. The first 20 mins or so are a little on the boggy side as you cross the edge of the moor but, if you are careful, you might be able to pick out the remains of an old wall/path, which makes the going a whole lot easier. Follow the burn under the pylons to the mouth of Coire Bhlacach and from there turn left up the East ridge. There are one or two relatively easy take-of options on the lower third of the ridge but then it becomes a little more difficult and steeper with large outcrops until you reach the top third or so. Taking off anywhere near the summit is fairly straightforward. (Time to top 1hr 40ish with full kit)

  
        As it looked like being a fairly warm spring like day we had decided to take it easy in the morning and enjoyed a few caffeine kicks in the hotel lounge, trying to guess what the other 9 of the top 10 viewpoints in the world were apart from the one we were looking at. Sadly, Pamela Anderson sunbathing wasn’t on the list. Anyway we took our time wandering up the hill, timing our take off for late in the afternoon, once the sun had past its peak. This turned out to be a good plan as the wind had also died down slightly to a fairly steady 10/12mph and had veered more to the south just as we reached our planned take-off spot. Perfect.

   
             Site check completed, we both made sure the other had spotted the pylons lining the valley floor and did a quick estimate of how close we could get to the tents. Then we were ready to go. It was a fairly short runway, so I popped my wing up to feel the air and to give it a quick shake out, while Iain did his pre flight check and readied himself. Then a quick nod that we were both set and a few steps later I was in the air. A couple of quick scoots along the ridge to maximise any lift going and then turned back S.E heading for the old road next to the tent. Surprisingly, despite it being fairly late on, there was still plenty of thermal action to be had. If your not as heavy on your wing as me that is.
            As usual being about 10kg on the dark side there really isn’t much that’s going to keep me in the air for long other than a tow from a passing moon rocket. So, after about 10 min’s I found myself nicely coming in to land on the road, about 50m from the tent. Great, a quick pack-up, wander back to the tent and put a brew on. It’s not a bad life sometimes.

         
                After a few min’s sitting in the sun enjoying the views, there was still no sign of Iain, so I got the binoculars out, did a quick radio check and scanned the hill sides for him. Surprisingly, he was still at the launch site ‘ground-handling’ Though, through the bino’s it was hard to see who was handling the ground more. Him or his new Nova.  Watching the wing snaking around like that was a bit like watching a cobra on cannabis. About ten min’s later he managed to get it together and did a rather nice take of straight into the path of an oncoming express elevator. A few min’s more he was a very respectable 300m above launch showing absolutely no signs of coming down. Wee Bugger……..! 

         
               Well, after what seemed like an eternity, he eventually graced mother earth with his prescence once more, landing on exactly on the same spot as me. Well, with one small difference that is. Only one of us dropped his wing onto the Barb-wire fence. **/x!! That’s the owners of ‘The Loft’ mortgage paid for next month. Seriously, I hope there’s not too much damage auld yin.

And that folks as they say was that. Another cracking weekend in the big hills. Tune in next weekend for more feckless adventures.
 
Joe Smith (Kmrt Air corps)
Fly fast, fly hard and if you see us – fly away.
 
 
 
 
 Iain hovers over the moor