james___'s most recent media on Ovi Share

Leaving Tinto

Sun, 09 Aug 2009 08:22:57 GMT

It wouldn't be appropriate to have some pictures of paragliding without some of parawaiting. So here's a shot from half way up Tinto hill. Beautiful day but as you can see five pilots leaving walking down. Too strong by just a frustratingly small amount. One student had already sailed over the back and needed extracting from the barbed wire fence. Great thing about flying on scottish hills is that the heather is bouncy. From about 100ft above Tinto you can see both coasts: :-( not on this occasion

Waving at the wrong person

Sat, 08 Aug 2009 21:37:55 GMT

The trouble is what with everyone wearing helmets and changing kit it can be easy to greet your fellow fliers when in the air and then suddenly realising it isn't who you thought it was! This is coming in to land at Combe, not a bad day at all but cloudbase rather low.

Wrynose Pass

Sat, 08 Aug 2009 20:39:12 GMT

Pete (or Bill same glider!) taking a leisurely meander down the pass. No thermals to be found - surprisingly - and the rest of the lakes sites blown out. Amazing place to fly. As you'd imagine, wind direction has to be spot on for this to be soarable and around 2pm (or earlier) it usually sea breezes...launch is off to my left from the camera position.

Location is of course not Coniston but its the closest you can get with OVI!

Magic Lift at Pandy

Tue, 21 Apr 2009 00:30:45 GMT

Late afternoon flying at Pandy.

Thermalling over launch at Pandy

Mon, 20 Apr 2009 23:26:14 GMT

Nice day, although it took some time to develop and get lifty. Off to the north and capped by inversion over the hill at ~600ft ATO until about 2ish and then people started to occasionally gain height. Lots of heroic efforts to fly along Offa's dyke but the vast majority were stuck near launch. As I'm lazy I didn't fly till it was really on.

Magic lift at Pandy

Mon, 20 Apr 2009 22:24:03 GMT

The crowd all floating around in the 'evening restitution' at Pandy, which seems to happen here later in the day. Anyway I'm no met expert, just enjoy flying in it. This picture is 1600x1200 so should fit your wallpaper on your PC nicely.

Soaring over Malverns

Sun, 06 Jul 2008 15:00:26 GMT

Soaring over the Malverns, a beautiful day... various excellent XCs on this day but I listened to the ground suck posse and took off too late. With Kettle Sings the takeoff is usually vertical if its good and you just have to have the balls to go for it!

Soaring above Montmin

Sun, 06 Jul 2008 14:34:39 GMT

At the start of the 'tour du petit Lac D'Annecy' - a classic 21km paraglider route round Lake Annecy. It was a bit thermic on takeoff but I managed to get up easily once off the ground. The secret here is not to hang around in the middle of the ridge as the thermals will tend to 'drip' off one end or the other. Once behind launch and above the end of the ridge, I was away!

Flying over Planfait towards lake Annecy

Sat, 05 Jul 2008 20:01:48 GMT

On le petit tour, flying over Planfait and heading over to the lake.

Flying over the Roc des Boeufs Annecy

Sat, 05 Jul 2008 20:01:48 GMT

Flying over the Roc des Boeufs Annecy. This is up at the 'second hump' . Eventually I dropped over this ridge and flew down over Entrevernes en route to Doussard. This isn't a good spot to catch a climb and after a couple of hours in the air I was lacking motivation to wait around for a passing thermal to come through to take me to the top of the Roc... next time!

Flying to the Roc de Boeufs Annecy

Sat, 05 Jul 2008 20:01:48 GMT

Crossing the lake and getting into position for soaring up the Roc. On a typical thermic day you get a valley breeze blowing down the valley - right to left in this picture, so you can use this dynamic lift to soar up the right of the ridge even in the absence of any good thermals.

Owen, Millie and Katie test their harness

Sat, 05 Jul 2008 19:15:26 GMT

Take your kids paragliding, you know they will enjoy it! Practising weight shifting at Irwyn's place prior to takeoff from Montimin / Seminoz. On this occasion I think Owen took them up the side of the Tournette and then landed after about an hour.

Landing at Doussard

Sat, 05 Jul 2008 19:07:43 GMT

A straightforward alpine landing at Doussard. Keep the speed up, and flare just before touchdown to land gently on your feet... takes a bit of time to adjust to this after typical UK top landing in strong conditions. Much to everyone's amusement I did a superman style faceplant first time I landed here....

Branscombe fly by

Sun, 22 Jun 2008 22:12:43 GMT

Flying past Branscombe takeoff. Almost perfect conditions and everybody in the air bombing up and down the Beer to Sidmouth run. As I had my family with me, I couldn't be as indulgent as usual and had to land.... they had an adventure getting down to the beach where I had bottom landed!

Woolacombe from the air

Sun, 22 Jun 2008 21:41:03 GMT

A quick 270 round the Woolacombe site starting at takeoff. Fairly deserted on this day as I remember although Jeff Hoer did fly his tandem (spread out on launch I think in this clip), and we got at least a couple of hours in. A really good site for hands off soaring but it is an epic journey to get there from my base in Dorset. - or indeed from anywhere else!!

Pitch control out of spiral

Sun, 22 Jun 2008 21:30:59 GMT

In Annecy at Flyeo with Fab talking me through controlling the pitching of the wing. To get a controllable pitching movement to experiment with I'm exiting fairly rapidly from the 360. The trick is learning when to react and not before. Very instructive and useful, and because their tuition is flexible, you really should do it as soon as you can... recommended!

On launch at Branscombe

Sun, 22 Jun 2008 21:30:59 GMT

On launch at Branscombe with the Sport3 and Supair. This is a lovely Condors only site that can handle a good range of wind directions, one of the reasons I joined the club! Bit of a trek across fields and through caravan parks to get there but worth it.

Takeoff at Lachens Sud

Sun, 15 Jun 2008 11:45:50 GMT

Reverse launch from Lachens Sud takeoff: my first thermal flying in the south of France with Andrew Pearse and the Flying Frenzy crew. I had just got my CP qualification the month before.

Rock and roll above les Dents de Lanfon Annecy

Sun, 15 Jun 2008 10:50:22 GMT

Part way round the Tour. At 7500ft, close to cloudbase, vario singing and climbing into a sky of small puffy clouds. It really doesn't get better than this! A little bit bumpy as I'm deliberately riding through the thermals coming off 'the teeth' rather than spiraling up to max height. And a big thank you to Matt Pepper for organising the trip that got me here!

360 over Combe Gibbet

Sun, 15 Jun 2008 10:07:48 GMT

Flying a 360 over Combe at about 1500ft ASL. Fairly rough on the day and didn't get much height - maybe a weak inversion stopping play at around this level only allowing strong thermals through.