Flybubble's Carlo Borsattino recounts his cross country (XC) flight by paraglider from Devils Dyke to Pevensey Bay on 27th October 2008.

The weather forecasts looked good for flying at the Devils Dyke on 27th October 2008, although with winds a little on the strong side and cloudbase not very high, so I deluded myself that I could afford to take the day off and go fly!

I decided to get to the hill reasonably early, to try and make the most of the day. Even at 9am however, there were already plenty of other pilots on the hill, with many more to arrive soon. As usual I had to spend some time phaffing around to get together all of my various bits of kit and paraphernalia - it's probably a good idea for me to always arrive early for this reason!

Once in the air I spent a little while trying to get some reasonable height so I could try for an XC. I realised during the flight that I forgot to set my altimeter to take-off height so was not 100% sure how high I was ASL; my GPS was reading 500ft lower than my altimeter so I guessed that was probably more correct (and looked about right).

After the usual yo-yo routine (up down up down in unpredictable thermal cycles) I eventually got to near cloudbase (<2500ft) with the Mad Farmer who hollered across to me: "Shall we go?" I was keen (as always!) but wanted to take the opportunity to reset my altimeter to the correct altitude, so I called back to him: "What altitude do you have?" To which he replied: "Eh? What?" I tried again: "How high are we? Do you know what altitude we're at?" To which Dave turned back into wind and glided back towards the hill, much to my confusion (and disappointment).

Later Dave told me he thought I'd said: "We're not high enough!" which is why he flew back to the hill, only to look back at me climbing and drifting off XC without him. Dave said he thought I was of questionable parentage at this point. ;^)

And drift I did... in scrappy broken climbs that never amounted to much and hardly ever went up all the way round... all the way to Seaford, where I FINALLY got a decent climb at last - phew! Unfortunately by this point I had drifted into a very difficult position to get back out of - running out of land, fighting against the wind - which eventually put an end to my progress.

I did manage one good push cross wind from Seaford to the hill with the Long Man of Wilmington on, where I found an absolutely ethereal climb, but the big blue hole (i.e. lacking in any cumulus clouds) to the north told of a sky bereft of lift, which is what I encountered on my long last glide to the ground.

UK Southern Paragliding XC Leagues

See this flight in the Southern Hang Gliding & Paragliding Club (SHGC) paragliding cross-country league.

Read more flight stories, articles and reviews on the Flybubble Blog.

Photos

See photos taken by Carlo Borsattino during his cross country flight from Devils Dyke to Pevensey Bay on 27th October.

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