Get the beers in, it’s club night

Winter’s here and that means club nights. Pub grub, a beer and talking flying for a couple of hours, what could be better than that? Well flying could, obviously, and a few of us have managed some bumpy days and smoother evenings to scratch that itch.

Keep an eye out for flyable windows and interesting club night talks and we’ll be back with another issue in January.

Heated gloves for Christmas please Santa.

editor@penninesoaringclub.org.uk.

Cover photo: Damian Thornton

Chairman’s Chunterings

Brian Stewart, Chairman

Do You Know What To Do, Right Now?

This article appeared in the DHPC newsletter recently and I’m grateful to the author, Rob Uselmann, for letting me use it adapted slightly for our club.

Note from Rob: I first drafted this article a few days before the terrible news of Kev’s passing on the hill and, being new in this role of co-opted first aid officer, considered pulling this version in lieu for a ‘softer’ approach. I was however encouraged by the committee to keep it as is.

Imagine this:
You are out flying with your mate and are having a grand time under beautiful skies. Suddenly, you realise you can’t see their wing in the air and after some looking around you see them on the deck …wing out… not moving… no response on radio. SHIT SHIT SHIT. You are the only other person around.

Close your eyes, imagine this scenario: What do YOU do right now?! Be honest.

1. I have no clue and ‘freeze’: I convince myself they’ll be alright, probably just radio not functioning and taking a breather, and I continue flying (whilst secretly shitting myself).

2. I have no clue and panic: I fly over and drop down to land quickly. After I miraculously manage to land unharmed myself, I drop my gear, run over and rip their helmet and gear off to see how they’re injured. Need to call 999. Shit my phone is still on my gear deck which has now blown into a tree. Once I recover it, shit no signal.

3. I recall a bit from reading, youtube, or a first aid course many years ago: I fly over and descend with my heart in my throat, landing a bit rough but ok. I quickly bundle my wing and throw my harness on it to secure it, grab my phone and run over. Something “ABC” but what exactly. My mate is breathing so I don’t touch them. I secure his wing and run up hill to find a signal.

4. I’ve got this: I take a deep breath and slow my heart rate. I fly over and descend within my capabilities (aided by the SIV course I did not long ago) and land a bit away from the emergency site. I quickly secure my own gear, pull out my phone, DHPC Emergency Card, compact First Aid kit and my tracker, and start applying “DRC ABC”. There’s no phone signal so I activate my emergency satellite beacon.

Are you #4? Please become my flying buddy!

For everybody else, how do you feel right now? Do you wish you knew better what to do?

Maybe you think this is not going to happen to you?

BHPA statistics 2020-23 show that every year there are 150-180 accidents outside a school setting, 100-120 resulting in injury, half of those serious. With 7000 members, that means roughly each year 1:100 sustain serious injury. DHPC (and PSC) has over 200 members.

As you might have seen or heard, the club is once again considering organising a (possibly subsidised) outdoor First Aid course. With existing committee members already loaded, they saw fit to introduce the new role of First Aid officer. I have a bit of background in emergency care and was already well aware how out of date I myself am getting, so this is a topic near my heart.

Considerations to the club are:

• Current level of FA experience in the flying membership.
• Level and duration of course required/desired: one v two days
• Cost of course
• Level of club sponsorship (if any)
• Timing:
• Location

Course: A comprehensive, remote-setting, substantially hands-on course is two days but provides a solid basis for all types of emergencies in a remote incident environment. The alternative would be a one-day course adapted from the standard ones to cover the sorts of situations we are likely to face. Based on their survey responses, DHPC have opted for a one-day course, tailored to free flight incidents.

There is a link below to a survey for PSC members to find out what YOU are looking for. Please take the trouble to follow the link and to answer the questions, even if you have no wish to do a course. That in itself is important feedback.

First Aid kits: If you run into even a relatively minor accident and you don’t carry even a very basic FA kit, you quickly have to tear up your clothes (or worse, wing) to make a bandage to stop bleeding or support a fracture. On the other end, all-encompassing first aid kit bags are wonderful, but also virtually useless during an accident if it sits in somebody’s car at the bottom of the hill or even further away when on XC.

Please do this first aid survey now

Notes from the Committee

Club night

Our first club night of the year was dedicated to weather forecasting. Brian kicked us off with a deep dive into Rasp, followed by Andy, Simon and Neil on Met Office forecasts, aviation forecasts, XC Weather and wind at altitude.

Our webmaster Carl has helpfully listed links to all of the different web resources we talked about, together with the video on the PSC site.

Even if you’ve been flying for years there might well be some new bits in here that you haven’t heard before.

Help wanted

A university student has contacted us via Facebook. If anyone would like to help please drop Jim Ashley a message for her email address.

I’m part of a group of university students tasked with creating a documentary for our degree over the next 5 weeks. We’re researching and brainstorming interesting people to focus on and thought that paragliding as an unusual hobby and wondered if there would be anyone from the club who would be interesting in taking part. If anyone would be interested in taking part, you can email me at… [give Jim a shout for Millie’s email address].

Thank you!

Millie Bennett

Sites

Andy Archer, Sites Officer

Winter Hill maintenance work is ongoing and could continue to the end of November. Until work on the masts is completed, access remains via the car park on Rivington Road and walking up the front face of the hill.

Note from Arqiva:

As could be predicted due to the weather conditions up on the hill, the works have been hit with a few delays. As it stands the work is continuing for another 2 weeks, it may run up to the end of November. Once the project team have handed the site over to our local team and access is restored I will send an email out on the access distribution list.

The Gallery

Safety

Barry Sayer, Safety Officer

Such bad weather has equated to no new incidents and accidents over the last few months and that’s not a bad thing to write, although we could all favour more flyable days. The weather gods are providing very few opportunities to attack the hills and when a flying window has appeared the conditions have been quite spicy, with turbulent air, strong winds and big wind gradients to test all your pilot skills. Make good decisions and don’t get caught out due to desperation to fly.

Our chairman’s article in Skywings last month was fantastic, revisiting the crucial elements of ‘sharing the sky’ with Bowland gliding club. Reading the site guide and familiarising yourself with the sailplanes’ landing circuit and flight patterns will not only secure our good club relationship, it will keep everyone safe.

Reserve repack day

A reserve repack day (your emergency parachute system) will take place early March 2025. It is provisionally planned for Sunday 09/03/25 - confirmation will follow. Pencil this in your diary! It’s essential that your reserve works correctly should you need it. Learning how to inspect your parachute, fold it as-per manufacturers spec and then install it in your harness is relatively straightforward and very satisfying.

Previous repack days have always been successful with a nice relaxed atmosphere at Chipping village hall and excellent attendance from many of the PSC members.

Cloud flying

It is inevitable that at some point during your paragliding or hang gliding adventures that you will end up in the white room. Recent news reports of a paraglider pilot being sucked into a cloud on a cross country flight in India saw him reach altitudes of over 7,000 metres, not of their choice. Incredible assent rates and rapid decent techniques not working must be a frightening experience most would like to avoid. The pilot survived fortunately.

Large clouds will suck you into them so being fully aware of the conditions and environment you are flying in is very important. It is vital that you have an early and safe escape route, using rapid decent methods as to keep a visual with other air traffic and in clear sight of the ground. On occasions it’s a great memorable experience whilst skimming clouds and flying through small ones. The danger lies with you having no visibility, no visual reference of the ground, and this can result in disorientation and even unnerving panic.

A personal experience of going in the white room this summer on a beautiful thermic day at Windbank in Yorkshire. The five star day took many pilots up to a cloud base at 4,700 feet, and with a brief use of big ears to lose the required altitude it was a simple effective manoeuvre to resume back to normal flight conditions. Good communication and separation with my flying buddy, plus holding our heading, was the key factor to drop out of the climb. Collision avoidance is a priority in these situations, just imagine several pilots flying in a cloud making turns, it would inevitably cause a very dangerous scenario for mid air collision.

Safe flights everyone.

A Grand Day Out

Pete Jones writes…

We had a great day playing in high winds on Longridge Tuesday 29th, flying a 15m Flare Line, here’s a couple of videos. Nobody else flying, it was strong, bumpy and well off to the West. There was a guy there flying model planes and we had a good laugh with him as well, sharing the hill and keeping good relations.

Shout Outs

For anyone who didn’t see the news on Pennine Chat, Richard Butterworth made a 10 hour, 422km epic flight from Assu in Brazil on 14th October. Congratulations Richard!

Competitions

Elliott Brown, Competitions Secretary

Northern Challenge Series 2024

That’s a wrap for this year (1st Feb - 31st Oct). Jacob Aubrey and Paul Rowntree dominated the series, and will take the Main Series and Sports Trophy respectively.

For those interested in what the series is, Ed Cleasby’s site has the full details.

XContest - Pennine Soaring Club

Another wrap for the year (1st October). The leaderboard hasn’t changed a lot over the last couple of months, I was hoping for a last great flight before the darkness crept in.

Don’t forget to sign up for next year’s season, I know a couple of flights have been going up already from club members.

XContest Pennine League Table

XC League

A Favour!

Are there any challenges that you set yourself when flying a pennine site or you have a dream flight in your head?

I would like to put together a set of PSC challenges (alongside the grid challenge - http://www.xcmap.net/x.php?t=544&c=Pennine) that we can all have a go at. Might be things like the Totridge run. Maybe Pendle to Longridge and back or a fun triangle out from Edenfield. If you have any ideas or challenges you set yourself, please can you share them with me and I will see about getting them added to xcmap as challenges/tasks we can all enjoy. I would like to include as many sites as possible, but realise a few might not have a lot of takers.

Telegram me direct or email competition@penninesoaringclub.org.uk.

Memory Lane

Jim Ashley with happy passengers Sam and Bryn, 13 years ago!

Dates For Your Diary

Graham Jones, Social Secretary

Monday 11th November - Club Night: Amazing flights with Richard Meek

Monday 9th December - Club Night: TBC

Sunday 9th March - Repack day (Date TBC, pencil it in but watch this space)

Top Tips

A top tip for hike and fly from Chamonix-based pilot Wicus. A duvet cover with your wing in it makes for a cosy night!

You Might Have Missed

Ero Zsolt has written a fascinating blog post on The Future of Paragliding Harness Back Protectors, trying to estimate the safety implications of the new generation of much thinner back protectors vs. older, thicker, foam ones.

There’s also a lively debate on the topic on ParaglidingForum.

Your Newsletter Needs You

Appear in the next newsletter! We need submissions for…

A Grand Day Out
2-3 paragraphs describing a fun day. You’re welcome to write more if you’re feeling creative but a couple of paragraphs is plenty. Could be epic, could be daft, could be simply the first time you flew for six months. If you’ve had a good day and you took some pictures, send it in.

Why Not Visit…
A quick guide to a site that you like, at home or abroad. Tell us where it is, what it’s like to fly, any watch-outs and how to contact the locals. Attach a photo and email it over.

The Gallery
Send in any recent(ish) shots with when and where they were taken. Spectacular, silly, from the ground or from the air, it doesn’t matter. Let’s see what you’ve been up to. Videos are very welcome too but pop them on YouTube or Vimeo and send a link for the newsletter.

Shout Outs
First ever XC? Smashed a PB? Took part in a comp? Let us know and get a shout out in the newsletter. Nominate your mates if they won’t do it themselves.

Top Tips
Spotted a bargain? Got a great travel tip? Know how to make Bluetooth connections work on an iPhone? Share your best ideas.

Send submissions on these or anything else you’d like to see featured to editor@penninesoaringclub.org.uk. You can also drop them over using the web form or message Neil on Telegram.

Fly safe, see you in January.