Kimmeridge Khmer Rouge


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Kimmeridge Khmer Rouge

Kimmeridge is a semi-coastal site that combines sea breeze effects with thermals from the extensive farmland and patches of forest between the hill and the sea. Most of my paragliding training, in 2000, was carried out there.

The club site guide is essential reading, especially if you fly a hang glider there.

1970s

Roly flying his home-constructed Skyhook IIIA standard Rogallo at Kimmeridge in 1975
Roland Lewis-Evans flying his home-constructed Skyhook IIIA standard Rogallo at Kimmeridge in 1975

These photos by Roly, sailmaker for Birdman Sports in Wiltshire, were taken in early 1979.

Roly launching from Kimmeridge in a Birdman Cherokee in 1979
Roly launching from Kimmeridge in a Birdman Cherokee in 1979

Incidentally, although it might look as though he used the flat-rigged hang glider as a launch trampoline, I am sure that is an optical illusion!

Peter T and Roly share the air
Peter T and Roly share the air

Peter T’s Hiway Superscorpion partly obscures Roly’s Birdman Cherokee.

Roly, Peter T, and Roly's mum with flat-rigged hang gliders behind the stone wall at Kimmeridge in 1979
Roly with his mother and Peter T among flat-rigged hang gliders behind the stone wall
Roly readying to fly assisted by Derek M at Kimmeridge in 1979
Roly readying to fly assisted by Derek McCann
Peter R landing his Birdman Cherokee at Kimmeridge in 1979
Peter Robinson landing his Cherokee

Peter Robinson started hang gliding in 1975. I recall soaring the Kimmeridge in my Skyhook IIIA standard Rogallo and Peter, in a white Hiway standard, was always a little higher than I was. He became the area distributor for Birdman and I recall him flying a Solar Wings Storm at Weymouth white horse in 1980 (when I was flying a Cherokee). Peter subsequently became a top paraglider pilot before transitioning to sailplanes.

See also Birdman and Solar Wings of Wiltshire, England and the Roly Lewis-Evans, sail maker, related topics menu.

New century

This new century keeps bringing you down
All the places you have been

— from the lyrics of Supreme by Robbie Williams, 2000

Hang gliders: Airwave 166 Magic 4, Aeros Discus 148, and Airborne 154 Sting 3
Harnesses: Solar Wings Edge 2 and Aeros Myth 2
In-flight camera: Ricoh FF-9 compact 35mm film

Hang glider flying at Kimmeridge, Dorset, England, in 2000
In the Magic 4 at Kimmeridge (digitized slide, which could do with cleaning)
Hang glider over Kimmeridge, September 2000
Kimmeridge scenery
Hang glider over Kimmeridge, September 2000
View of a small part of this long ridge

Hang gliding and paragliding at Kimmeridge in 2001 or 2002
View of the flying from my paraglider in 2001 or 2002 (digitized slide)

That’s Gary Dear in his Airwave Magic 3 hang glider dodging slower-flying paragliders in 2001 or 2002. (See Paragliding.)

Hang glider at Kimmeridge, Dorset, England, in 2002
Gary Dear launches in the Magic 3 from the far end
Hang gliding and paragliding at Kimmeridge in 2002
Gary’s Magic 3 in 2002

Hang glider setting up for a landing near the mansion below Kimmeridge, Dorset, England, in 2005
Setting up for a landing near the mansion below Kimmeridge

This photo was in August, 2005. The wing is an Aeros Discus 148.


Camera test
Extensive farmland and patches of forest between the hill and the sea…

The photos of a black and white Airborne 154 Sting 3, taken on a light sea breeze day at Kimmeridge in June 2010, are of poor quality. I include them because hang gliding is a rare occurrence at this once popular site. Indeed, access and parking is so problematic there that, by 2015, it is not used much even by paragliders. (Ringstead serves the same wind direction — south west — and it has a public car park on the top of the hill.)


Hang glider in-flight photo
Nearing the west end of the ridge
Hang glider in-flight photo
Solar reflection

Notice the people walking along the path behind the stone wall. At this height in a paraglider, you can wave and even say a few words to them. In a hang glider, you are worrying about staying high enough to reach a landing field if you encounter sinking air.

Hang glider in-flight photo
At the south end of the ridge

In the photo taken near the south end of the ridge (the Kingston end) the ridge on the right is at a right-angle to the main ridge, which runs parallel to the fence and style just visible at lower left.


Hang glider at Kimmeridge, Dorset, England
Gary Dear in a Clubman in 2010

The Clubman, an easy-handling double surface wing, was originally made by Southdown Sailwings, but production was taken over by Avian.


Hang glider hang check
Hang check

Here, long time sail-maker Roly Lewis-Evans is on the front wires for Gary Dear’s hang check in October 2021. The mountain-biker in the blue helmet is Arthur from the USA, who has flown paramotors in Utah and was at this time studying at Bournemouth University, just a few miles from Kimmeridge.

Roly Lewis-Evans launches at Kimmeridge
Roly launches for his first flight in a hang glider for 22 years
Gary Dear at Kimmeridge
Gary in ridge lift

Related

Overview of Ringstead