This genuinly had my heart pounding. There was always a way out, a plan, but the potential for an incident was never far from my mind. A few more flights here and the fear may subside?
This is actually a bucket-list item for me. Thank you for filming this. I don't want to be lying down in a nursing without doing this with a loved one - perhaps a tandem flight.
Great video Russell, I don't fly myself so really appreciate any commentary you pilots make as you fly. It's also a bonus for us when you guys say it as it is, scary bits and all. Thanks for sharing 👍.
Hi Russell that was a great video! Very well presented and very well flown as usual. 👍 My flight was even more scary when I suddenly decided to land in rotor! 😱Keep up the good work and always a pleasure to see you look forward to the next time!
Very enjoyable!! I’d be bricking it too on that crossing! Your options were slim! Nice to see the Isle of Wight! Haven’t been on land there since a kid and use to fish around it a lot. Flying is another amazing dimension
That was a really great ride, thanks. I learned to paraglide at Freshwater, way back, with the goal of paramotoring which I did for about 4 very thrilling years. I loved it, mainly in The New Forest area, and remember it with great affection. These days you're more likely to see me in my Foxbat A22, showing my passengers the delightful views of the likes of The Needles and Spinnaker Tower from 1000 feet with no danger of collapses or having to thumb a lift back to the car 🤣😂. I look forward to more of your flying videos.
@@Ripstop_pilot A quick look at my BHPA logbook, started paramotoring in 1997, Samba 29 and Scoble motor, went on to a Trekking wing, Prelude XL, Fusion XL, Airheart, Apco Medium, Fusion with a FreshBreeze motor, Silex wing, last flight November 2001, just under a hundred hours of sheer pleasure and the occasional fright. Loved it.
25hr a year???? Lots of time and money for low hrs. My up vision 1994 is immaculate condition. Think it has 0 hrs on it. Lol. Gotta fly it some more. Probably at meon shore.
The bay crossing needed 100% commitment. The wind was variable all day and a low approach waiting to connect to lift left any bomb out options to be fast down wind or last minute cliff top down wind up hill landing. I think a lot of people miss the reasoning someone may find it scary. But rough seas and no bottom landing options if you leave it too late or find the lift isnt working or catching rotor off a Sharpe edge cliff can be catastrophic. Plus....I cant swim well.
@@Ripstop_pilot thank you for your quick reply. Here a link to part where it seem to get scarier and scarier. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-lTJsh_uowVQ.html I thought you could top land nearly everywhere. And even in the bay where you see a beach. I do not want to be arrogant. I know in the air it all looks and feels much different. And when I see some of my videos I wonder why I was shitting my pants ; )) I am just curious .... is it very turbulent landing on top of this cliffs because they are so steep and therefore you have to deal with severe rotors not even knowing where they are located?
@@dirkbruenner the bigger the cliff, the sharper the edge, right over the edge there is no wind but rotor blowing off cliff as youd land on it. Along that clif there were parts working better than others which was strange. The scariest bit was the low commited approach to the cliff after the gap crossing. The lower cliff would produce less lift in the first place so it could go wrong if the wind dropped at all.
@@dirkbruenner Humans fear the unknown, and he said it was his first time so he's capturing his conquering of his unknown, testing his knowledge and putting theory to practice. I think that's pretty brave. We see his mate loosing his nerve and making a questionable decision flying into rotor which is clearly more risky then making it across and flying on, or turning back building height and trying again. It's a good watch and shows the mental pressures as he points out the risks and his plans, and will be a good milestone to look back on :)
@@Ripstop_pilot nevertheless you still have the beach in the bay. To me it looks challenging but not scaring. The other pilot also landed easily on the lawn in this bay area.
Wow what a nice video. How far did you go there 2 times 15 km . ?? Was this a very lucky day conditionwise.? Dont you have a lot of wind over there. I would love to go and try sometime.
Haha...not quite. A few locals were ahead of me.....it was that xing that was in question. Connecting straight at a castle was spectacular view but no time to enjoy it 😂
@@Ripstop_pilot Different.. we get dynamic lift as well. Way more turbulent but still nice. If lucky it's a mix of dynamic and thermic and then you soar up huge faces in no time. Really feels like sitting in an elevator :D Good flying!
Yea I’m not a fan of ridge soaring sites that don’t have a beach or some sort of landable terrain at the bottom. Of course I don’t have much ridge soaring experience, maybe 5 hours, I live inland so my experience is primarily thermic mountain soaring, about 50 hours of mountain soaring, still quite low but I’m getting more. Would be nice to have some more ridge soaring in my area but if it’s one or the other I prefer mountains and thermals anyway.
It's all flying to me. Just live being in the air. Having coastal sites opens up flying all year round and there can still be challenges along the way. Thermic cc flying definitely has its rewards over coastal flying.
@@Ripstop_pilot yea, the only problem for my location is the closest ridge soaring sites are about 2.5-3 hours drive away, and driving that far for it to not work is very frustrating, I’ve made the drive and had it not flyable at all or maybe just a 2 minute sled ride. But it is fun and relaxing when it does work, they are great places for the people that live close and can just run out there for the occasional hour that it works.
@@Ripstop_pilot yea, I did go down and stay with a friend for a few days, was really fun, got lots of much needed ground handling practice and quite a bit of flying
He is flying in something called ridge-lift. He is basically surfing the cliffs, same as a surfer is always falling down the wave, but the wave energy keeps them up in the sweet spot. We call the sweet spot a "lift band." Also, why waves break on shore due to the rise in terrain under the ocean, the same applies here with wind. Wind comes in and slams into the cliffs and it can only go up. He is riding that.
The scary part is you flying over areas with no bottom landing, saying that you can't swim very well and not wearing a life jacket, hmm what could possibly go wrong ?
Thing is, if I wore a life jacket, am I not preparing for failure a little too much? We should always be prepared and the risky options to land downwind up hill for me were precaution enough.
