WORLD HANGGLIDING CHAMPIONSHIPS 2019 - FINAL TASK! 

Ha! I'd be sacked right after my first karaoke rendition!!!

@@MooSurferheheheheeee

Thank you Samarth!!

The pull will always be there... once lockdown is over get out the glider!!

Thank you Roger! Are you still flying now? There are few people like you coming out of the woodwork watching my videos - original 70s pilots! You guys were true heroes.... Madder than me!!

@@MooSurfer After a long layoff when the kids were young I started again a few years ago, but somehow it seems to have given me up! So busy doing things with my wife (trekking, cycling, kayaking) that I have little time over, and I always used to advise that you should either fly or NOT fly - but don't play at it - so I think I may have inadvertently taken my own advice! :) Yeh - we were all pretty mad, mainly because we didn't have a clue what we were doing - we had to make it up as we went along. The real heroes were the ones we lost on the way whilst evolving the kit from lethal death traps to the brilliantly conceived and engineered wings available today. People like John Hudson (Main Air sports) who developed the trike, Paul Maratos of Flexiform Skysails, Steve Hunt of Hiway (the only way to fly is Hunt and Ivers way = HiWay), Bob Wills of Wills Wing, Keith Cockroft - the first BHGA training officer and one of the most naturally gifted pilots I ever saw, and Bob England - who also worked with Hiway, and all of who I counted as friends. I really hope they are remembered and not airbrushed out of history. The debt that today's pilots owe them cannot be overestimated.

Thanks John! And thanks so much for your support :-) I really appreciate it and have enjoyed doing the videos. More to come from the British National Championships...

@@MooSurfer yeah , that's what I was hinting at , lol cant wait :)

Thanks Dennis! Next up... British Championships!

Wow! You sound as much a legend as Johnny Carr!! All those sites are great aren't they - and you were flying them in the heyday. Where do you fly now?

Hi Darren, Yes, Johnny Carr has become a legend, I only a dinosaur! I flew with Johnny only once: at the 1983 Worlds at Tegelberg when he came 11th and Graham Hobson 2nd. I flew as one of the wind dummies then. My first gliders were English ones: Sunspot and Safari from Skyhook and Super Scorpion, Magic 4 and Demon from Highway. Having flown all over Europe, now at the age of 66 I mainly fly our local sites at the Wasserkuppe (the “cradle of gliding”) in Germany. Good luck to you in Ager which I flew in 1086 - great place!

And thank YOU for enjoying them and giving such great comments! It's been a real blast

Thank you very much! Welcome back and I hope you have fun getting back in the air :-)

Bernie is just a wuss ;-)

More coming up soon! Off to the European Championships in a few weeks - there are currently 125 gliders entered...

I'll do my best, though I have to do a bit of that dreaded work thing before the Nationals. And right now have a week of fun with my youngest son. :-)

Thank you! And that's one of the aims of these videos - to promote to non-flyers... So thank you for helping me do that!

You're welcome Nadav! I'm glad you enjoyed them.

Thanks Chris - glad you liked it!

I came 49th Scott - I dropped right down the points after my little airspace adventure ;-) Still - happy with it for my first Worlds - I scored 4 times for the British team and got to goal every day except one. :-)

Thank YOU for watching!!! Amazing... I guess I just can't help it ;-)

People on the ground DO sometimes hear me chattering away...

Cheers Garry, glad you like the vids! Advice I've been given when flying behind someone is not to get too close in case they do a sudden turn, for example as they find a strong thermal. I think you're talking about being underneath someone and coming up into them though? I'm not fully clear on the circumstance you mean...

Thank you Glen! I really do appreciate the support.

Cheers Golf! This year has understandably been tough on flying, but I'm hoping for more soon....

@@MooSurfer I've grown to like the hang glider (powered) flying. I was never very good at thermal flying in either sailplanes or paragliders. I converted to a Sub 70 PeaBee last year. I can't wait to get back in the skies. I might even turn the engine off and try thermalling again. I'm slowly working my way through your back catalogue of videos.

Ah well each to their own Golf! Thermalling DOES take practice but is THE most rewarding thing when you find yourself rocketing skywards on a magic carpet of air

Thanks Peter! Shame about the mad cow... but perhaps now you might like to try again? Where are you based? I'm certain there will be people who will be willing to help and mentor you...

Thing is David, if I can do it then anyone can! I'm a proper numpty. Just keep at it and most importantly, enjoy it!!

@@MooSurfer Hehe, you're not a numpty. You flew in the XXII Hang Gliding World Championship!

Cheers mate - hi five back at ya!

Thanks Mike!! Hopefully I'll have some good videos to come from the Nats….

Great idea! Thank you very much :-)

Thanks Sotir! I had a much lower save than that a few days previously, though I didn't capture it on video because I was panicking too much to turn it on!!

Yes Mike - I came 49th - I dropped right down the points after my little airspace adventure ;-) Still - happy with it for my first Worlds - I scored 4 times for the British team and got to goal every day except one. :-)

Thank you Rob! The T shirt was a free gift at one of our British National Championships. It was designed by one of our pilots.

Tim, they do hanggliding in France too you know!! In fact one of my best friends, Tim Swait (and owner of British hanggliding manufacturer, Avian) learned to fly in France. He does not speak da lingo much either. I can get him to put you in touch with a French school perhaps if you're interested... France would be a very good place to learn.

Darren Brown Extreme Sports well I know they must do it here it was the language barrier I was concerned about. I live near Limoges so if your mate can suggest a good school that would be great. By the way where did you end up on the final results they must have given you more points for singing your way around the tasks lol

Haha!! No singing points I'm afraid. Just a written warning for disturbing the peace ;-) I'll speak to Tim about schools - he learned at St. Hilaire I think.

Darren Brown Extreme Sports cheers mate keep the vids going

Yes - I've already made a video about it... I just need to edit it

Спасибо!

I had been scared so often over the previous 7 days that my scaredness had run out ;-)

Hi and thank you! French... Hmmm. Sur le pont - the only song I know. My second system is a Kobo e-reader with LK8000 software installed. It's a derivative of XCSoar

First step, contact a school. They'll teach you in small progressive steps - go for it!!!

My old mentor, Stuart Bond, always told me people prefer to thermal on the side where they have their Vario. I've found that true too so used to periodically switch sides. I used to be a left hand thernaller but switched to right - possibly because British comps seem to use the right more. Nowadays I'm pretty even on both sides, though with still a slight right bias. I know what you mean - it just feels more natural one way

I think all those other gliders took a shortcut ;-)

Hi Tony, I fly a Wills Wing T2C. It's the largest size - 154.

That depends on the strength of the thermal - if I sense the air around me becoming rougher, I generally start to let off a little VG. Sometimes there might be a bit of a wire slap, but more likely just a big 'whoosh' upwards - depending really how fast you are going at the time and how strong the thermal is. It's really not a big issue, the most effect is likely on final glide if you are coming in hot!

No - it's in 1080p. When it first uploads it tends to take a few minutes to put the full quality in though...

It was in Italy, in Europe

Airspeed... all I need to know is fast, or not so fast ;-). Seriously - I sense by the sound of the air past my ears. If it goes really quiet - I'm on the edge of a stall. Beyond that I don't actually need to know the speed. When I'm racing with the other gliders, I don't need to know the exact speed. Only need to keep up with them. My cruising speed is around 25-28mph, when I'm in a race between thermals it's somewhere above 40mph generally. This is all depending on the conditions of the day and may be faster or slower.

You're right - it does seem strange. But think of it this way - feet and kilometers make the distances and heights sound more impressive ;-)

@@MooSurfer yes they do, haha. But it would be nice to use glide ratio to decide if I can use my 1km of altitude to get to the point that's 10km away rather than having to convert things all the time.

@@TheGrundigg you don't need to convert it if you have a decent instrument - it will give you the glide ratio to the next point / goal. And also show what glide ratio you are actually achieving.

Thanks for the feedback..... what would you prefer?