ESP club Blog WordPress weblog for members & friends of East Scotland Paragliding club

28/07/2010

Glenshee Chairlift (7 days/week) opens for Mtn Bikes

Filed under: Club days in the Scottish Glens,Scottish Training — Murray Hay @ 07:03 pm

Based on press reports (I’ve not yet visited/spoken with them) Glenshee are now, subject to the weather (wind limits I guess) open 7 days a week with the Cairnwell Chair for Mountain Biking. 

The ski centers website currently has limited info. but as of the end of July 2010, quotes a full day (up to 4:30) adult up-lift (with bike) of £15.

 In the past the center has opened on one off’s like the 1997(or perhaps ‘98?) HG event I took photographs of, and more recently Glenshee has started limited summer opening for walkers (and of course paragliding), so the development of Mtn. Biking looks to give a boost to mountain thermal training and mountain XC flying in Scotland.

 This last couple of years a number of the pilots who have/currently fly with ESP club have done (or come close to!) record distance flights and I can see use of the up-lift at Glenshee increasing this type of flying, with car sharing giving the chance of a couple of ‘bites at the cherry’ in the same day!

19/04/2007

Filed under: Club days in the Scottish Glens — Alan @ 03:29 pm

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.

28/03/2007

Skiing and Paragliding – All In a Day

Filed under: Club days in the Scottish Glens,Mountain days,Ski-Fly Days — Dunc1261 @ 01:53 pm

I spoke to Murray last Friday 23rd March from Heathrow Terminal 1 after my regular visit to the BMI lounge and the use of a laptop PC to log on to the ESP Club site and click on the weather link. I saw Joe’s posting on the Club Forum for the weekend and with a Monday flight back down to London I knew I could negotiate with Jacqueline for at least one day out.

Both Saturday and Sunday looked like flying days on the Bracknell Chart so I kept my fingers and toes crossed.Saturday morning came and I phoned Murray at 7.30am to check his plans. He was heading out PDQ to use his Season Skiing pass at Glenshee and asked me what shoe size I was and I knew what was coming next…. I did fancy a go at skiing as I have not been for a few years but my heart was on getting some air time as I had not been in the harness for quite a few weeks. Into the TT and headed out of Aberdeen. Stopped at the Aboyne Glider site and watched plane and glider take off. Wind was light and variable. The blue skies beckoned.Through Braemar now and saw a car at the track leading up Morrone so I knew some of the Aberdeen Club members were out. I looked up at Morrone but could not see any canopies in the sky.Pushing on to Glenshee I saw Murray’s Pickup in the resort Car Park. Speaking with Murray on the phone who at the time was enjoying some skiing I took his advice and went to the South Car Park.  

The wind was blowing up the valley so I took the decision to head up with the paraglider and make a flight.The wind was square on the slope. I saw Murray at the bottom pull up and lay his wing out. I laid my wing out and took off, working the weak lift coming through. Helmet camera was on so I was recording the flight. 10 minutes in Murray was flying out in front and I landed just behind him. During the flight I experienced tip collapses which worked themselves out very quickly. I should have leaned back more though. I had to scratch and fly above the snow several times. Thermals were weak and punchy. 

Ian heading down to land next the road.

 

Ian came out and we chatted about conditions. A kestrel or hawk was hovering in the bowl at the top right. Murray advises to move round to the bowl which I did. Ian flew round to join us.A number of flights from the bowl were had by all, including one I had into a pile of snow which was great fun. Murray flew the other side of the bowl and Ian had a good flight after showing us up with his ground handling skills. Well done Sir!My last flight was down to the Car Park after flying over a family enjoying some sledging. I landed just short of the road and my canopy settled onto the road. I should have carved round and headed nearer to the south side as the valley wind would be disturbed downwind. I have posted a video onto www.YouTube.Com , search for Paragliding and Glenshee.     See you on the hill soon.  Duncan  

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