The highs and lows of a "View Junky"

Friday 18th April 2014

Harting, South Downs, Sussex, England.

The South Downs has been the location for many a high scoring UKNXCL flight, including Johnny Carrs record breaking Out and Return 108km flight in May 2012 (the UKNXCL is the UKs league for hang gliding cross country flights). Pilots from the South are regularly ribbed by their Northern counterparts who see it as an extended "ridge lift" flight, rather than a thermic one. OK then boys and girls, come down 'sarf and try it....! I had never flown the Downs and was keen to see what all the fuss about. 

Map of Southern England - South Downs in green, with Harting to the left

Wind off to the NE at Harting

With a good NNE RASP forecast I made plans to meet up at Harting with Tim King and Nev Almond to try and kick start my season for the UKNXCL After an early start and a 90 minute drive I arrived on the hill at 9.00am - there was a Paraglider flying but with the wind picking up and off to the East he was soon back down and packing up, leaving the ridge to the growing number of arriving HG pilots.

By 11am there were a lot of hang glider pilots either rigged and ready to go (eg Nev Almond, Murray Brown and myslef) or arriving to fly (Tim and Charlie King amongst them). With Nev setting an out and return flight on his rigid to Lewes and back (about 120km in total) I decided to do the same - well a challenge is a challenge! 

By 11.30am  Nev had already launched and darted right to the tree covered bowl that faces more in to a NE wind. I took off and having grabbed a few extra feet above Take Off glided immediately over the trees to the bowl to be rewarded immediately with a good climb. Murray Brown was soon launched and coming in underneath. As we climbed sailplanes were soon screaming in along the ridge.and before long we were able to reach cloudbase at about 3500'

As the flight progressed the sky continued to improve with well formed Cumulus clouds marking the way. Not dropping much below 2500' for most of the flight it was clear that this was not an extended ridge run. A gaggle of five sailplanes circling tightly down course enticed me to go on a fast glide to find their thermal and hopefully climb with them. 



Reaching the gaggle about level with the bottom glider in the thermal column, I made a wide circle around them before slotting in to the climb in a predictable manor. Being on a flex wing, you can react very quickly to "surges" in the lift, and within a few seconds of joining the gaggle I hit a strong surge. Cranking it up sharply (ie turning with a lot of bank) I managed to core a punchy little core that allowed me to gain a hundred feet on the sailplane.

As I glided on the views towards the coast were simply beautiful. I have heard free flyers referred to as "View Junkies". Thinking about it, that is a pretty fair description. Every time I fly I am rewarded with a perspective of the World that not many people get to see. I feel very privileged to be a part of this woefully under subscribed sport, and it seems such a shame that there isn't a waiting list of people wanting to learn to fly. 

View towards South Coast and Chichester

As I flew on towards Arundel my luck began to change. My instrument pod decided suddenly to slip from its mounting. Quickly grabbing the unit I then had to hold it manually but realising that I could not fly for another two hours like that I had to try and sort the problem out. However any attempt I made to lock off the mount failed and n the process of "fiddling" with my gear I had managed to lose about 2000'. With my thoughts now more on making sure I didnt drop the instruments, I glided towards a tree lined bowl and was only rewarded with scrappy bits of lift which we now drifting in a southerly direction. Nice. So having battled upwind, the slight downwind part of the flight would  now become another even stronger head wind. Great.

Looking East there was a huge blue hole over a flatter stretch of land. I decided to change my plan and fly West back to Take Off at Harting to complete a shorter undeclared Out and Return (60km total). Gliding forward I headed for the ridge hoping to pick up a strong climb. It was obvious that the local wind speed had increased significantly and with the basement button of the elevator pushed, I was heading down to land sooner than I anticipated. Appraising the landing options I thought it better to get over to the West side of the River Arun and headed for an upslope field towards the top of a hill which, if I managed to steal a few hundred feet, I could glide over and hopefully soar. There were also a group of houses next to the field and what looked suspiciously like a pub.... 

The George and Dragon, Houghton

However there were also a couple of problems, one of which I appraised, the second not. Firstly the field had a steep drop off,(covered with trees) to the river below which could present a dangerous undershoot situation, but with the height I was approaching I could not see it as a problem The second problem, which I didn't consider, was that the wind had picked up and there could be rotor or curl over effect over the landing field. You can see where this is going... As I glided over the river and approached the field I was beginning to think I would have to burn of a hundred feet or so to get in. But no sooner had I thought it, then I hit the most severe of sink. Pulling on speed I was dropping down below the field and heading straight for the trees. With a river below me, I could not turn back. Accelerating even more towards the least high trees, I left it to the last second to convert the speed to height, practically skimming the trees as I popped out over the top putting me within spitting distance of the field that had now thankfully come back in to view. Unfortunately the last push out of the bar to clear the obstacle had stalled the wing. With my right wing now dropping and turning me back towards the drop off, I managed to muscle the glider straight and "landed" unceremoniously one metre short of the field with my arrival softened by some very prickly bushes in between the trees. 

With a quick check over both myself and the glider seemed to have escaped pretty much unscathed apart from a few scratches and a bent upright. Luckily two local lads had watched my arrival with interest and come over to help. Within a few minutes the glider was folded and carried over n to the field where I could eventually breath a sigh of relief. 

The one bit I had got right was that there was indeed a pub across the road. As I waited with pint in hand a text came through from Babs Retrieve - Charlie King had just landed after completing her first UK XC flight. Now, that's definitely worth a celebratory drink...

 Charlie King high over the South Downs