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Paragliding continued

This page follows from Paragliding.

Condor legion

On this day in August 2014, paragliders soared late afternoon light lift and haze at Bell Hill, north Dorset, England.

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The year 2015 started badly with a serious paragliding injury at Monk’s Down.

Ironically, the previous weekend, three club members (including me) acted as volunteer fence marshals at a horse racing event, which raised money for this very helicopter (or, to be more accurate, to go towards replacing it with a more capable one).

Clockwork paragliding

On a Saturday in late May 2015, a light and variable wind blew up, and sometimes across (when it blew at all) a tree-topped small ridge in north Dorset, England, called Monk’s Down. According to info I found on the web (not always reliable) it is named after a village clock maker named Monk.

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As far as we know, Kylie Minogue (an attractive Australian singer famous in Britain) does not really live in that big house, but we call it Kylie’s house by the following logic…

A country road runs along the top of Monk’s down; a narrow strip separating the grassy slope from the ridge of trees along the top. Very occasionally on a summer’s day, a loose and leisurely gaggle of burly fellows cycles along that road. In the middle of them, also on a bike, is an attractive woman. American singer Madonna has a residence a little way behind Monk’s down.

Madonna and Kylie are approximately the same generation and they are often compared and contrasted.

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Between cycles of thermal lift, paragliders descend to soar the ‘cliff’ of trees along the top of the ridge, directly above the road. If they are unable to maintain height there, they fly forward and land on the slope, ready to launch again in the next lift cycle. Such thermic cycles occur at intervals in this kind of weather. (Not quite as regular as clockwork, unfortunately.)

Hang gliders, which land faster than paragliders, are not as well suited to these conditions as are paragliders.

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The RAF supplies its paraglider pilots with top equipment all finished in RAF colours.

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Sean Staines flew his paramotor from this blue day in early September 2015 at Bell Hill to the coast to see if conditions were any better at Ringstead.

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As always in light thermic conditions, paragliders sought out and took advantage of whatever lift was out there.

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This topic continues in Paragliding 3.