February
17/2/2026 Park Fell NNW to N
Sunny ... but cold and snowy underfoot. You know how it is ... it takes a bit of effort. Sack on, one foot forward, then two and you start walking without a lot of convicition. The further I committed the warmer I became and soon I was through the gate onto the lower fell. Following on a few hundred metres behind was Rob and Alan. As the VERY light wind was on the NW face I skirted across at the second step, determined not to carry any higher. At this stage it didn't seem any more than a lazy gamble.
I laid out, the wind remain light, re attached my glider, didn't quite get it right and ended up with a speed bar line twisted through a riser. It flew fine, just with no speed bar. The lessons were there with three aborted launches as the glider twisted ... as I could see no knots I just carried on and hoped.
Despite a light wind, a mere 8kph, there was surprisingly good lift and I soon joined Rob and Alan who had taken off just below the top. What followed was 30 - 40 minutes of nice, smooth soaring until the cold seaped into my feet and we went and landed. The revelation has been the full face with visor, my face and head remained warm. pulling down the visor is amazing, like stepping out of the wind.
After packing we wandered back to the Station Inn for coffee by a nice fire.
Stills LINK
27/2/2026 Semer (N)
Despite the recent lengthy spells of rain and wind there are occasional slots to exploit and today was one of those. The morning dawned grey and misty, but with a front sinking to the SE and a light NNW wind forecast for after 12pm it seemed we may be entering a better airmass.
Tom and I drove over, arriving at 1pm in Hawes. A quick recce up to Wether just to check the wind as it was pretty calm down in the valley. It actually felt OK at the roadhead, some wind although not a lot, but already it was starting to veer around to the NNW direction, So ... a quick decision that was in the plan, we set off for Semer.
Rather surprisingly there was a fair bit more wind blowing over the shoulder and it was square on ... the direction was faultless. We only needed to launch from the shoulder, the wind had eased a little to perhaps 8 - 10kph, but it proved very bouyant. It wasn't long before we were both enjoying the full length of the ridge. The lift was very smooth, really pleasant and a good way to blow off a few cobwebs. Extremely enjoyable.
For almost 50 minutes we had it to ourselves before another car arrived - J36 er Chris Morris. As he was laying out I landed on the shoulder for a brief chat, before relaunching into the easy, predictable lift. Another spell of flying/videoing before we all landed ... and it was still working well.
A lovely day out with very little struggle or angst .... and no sign of rain, nor the sun unfortunately or it could have got interesting.
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