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Saturday 16 March 2013

Parlick Excursion

Well the last round of the Northern Winter League was cancelled today due to indecisive weather forecasts. So instead I went for a quick MTB ride up to the local windmills in the rain, when I came back home the rain had stopped and there were hints of blue sky. I was tempted but stayed at home and washed my bike, ate pizza and watched the Australian F1 qually, which got cancelled due to rain.

By this time the sun was mocking me through the living room window so I decided to chance it with a quick drive up my nearest hill Parlick hoping it wouldn't start raining again. When I got there the skies were ominous with dark brooding clouds but the rain held off and I made the quick climb up to the top to see how the paragliders were getting on.

Again the forecast southerly winds were wrong and the wind was coming from the West, this put me on my favourite NW bowel which works well with a Westerly. The paragliders were struggling to get off, but I confidently but 600g of ballast in the Cyril and chucked off into a light breeze of 5mph. She didn't climb out very well, but as soon as I made the first banked EM turn that extra ballast really helped her grip and she was soon singing her song, with that high pitched whine she does so well. The paragliders looked on with envy as I carved up the slope at  a steady pace, able to fly very close in to the lovely grassy slope in the light wind.

I managed 30 min before the lift failed, so I went for a very long landing, as there was not much air to slow down a slippery Cyril with  40% ballast. I took all the ballast out and managed 20 min more before I decided to call it a night and land.

Nice late afternoon's flying, hopefully get some more in tomorrow.