Fulford Landings

Click image for Photoset #1XC flights on Saltspring!

Rick, Lee, Romain, Paul, and I hopped on the 9am Fulford ferry and were soon chatting with HGer pilot Les who predicted a good flying day. Les told us stories from the early days of hang gliding on the island that make what we do today look like a walk in the park. Seriously.

Little cu's were forming as we were docking and by the time we got to launch they were much thicker and taller. Rick volunteered to go first and soon realized that he should have waited another 10-15mins as he found nothing but smooth, sinky air.

Kuno was next and soon disappeared around the corner, followed by Lee and then Romain who both worked the bowl to the right of launch. It wasn't easy going, but after some perseverance, Lee and Romain were both approaching the 2800' cloud base, having to do 'ears' to stay below the 2500' ceiling. Kuno had landed at this point and both Lee and Romain headed east towards Reginald Hill. Lee considered landing on the beach in Fulford but the tide was too high so he decided against it.

Click image for Photoset #2He and Romain started to head back towards Mt Maxwell as I took to the air, quickly getting up to base for what would be my first good thermalling flight on the Airwave MAGIC 5. I passed over Lee and Romain as they were arriving at Ray's gravel pit (Lee climbed back up but Romain picked a bad line and ended up landing in the 'Beer Field' for the second time in a row!).

I then proceeded to zoom all over the southern part of the island - flying back and forth to Fulford a couple of times and over to Bruce Peak where I buzzed by Les and John who were still on launch. I did get low at one point at Bruce but managed to find a nice climb in the gulley between the PG and HG launches. I flew will Paul for a bit in the middle of the valley (which is a rarity, according to Les) and then headed back to Ford Lake for a while, back to Maxwell (where Rick and Kuno were up on launch again for another flight), etc. before deciding to land on the beach near Drummond Park in Fulford Harbour (the tide was low enough by then).

As I was starting to set up to land, John zoomed by me on his hang glider and landed just in front of me. Just a few days ago, I was speaking with him at Dallas about landing at the beach in Fulford so it was fitting that we'd do so together so soon!

Click image for Photoset #3After packing up in the park and answering tonnes of questions from the small crowd that had gathered, John and I walked to the Fulford Inn where Paul and the rest of the crew pulled up in the van. Great timing! While Kuno and Romain handled the retrieve, Paul, Lee, and I walked to the Rocksalt Cafe for a bite to eat. Meanwhile, Rick had managed to scratch his way up to cloud base on his second (redemption!) flight and I suggested he try and glide to the beach in as well. He pointed his Mustang2 for Fulford and it wasn't long before he touched down beside Drummond Park. Way to go Rick!

Les, meanwhile, had gotten a low save under the thermal that Paul had marked earlier in the valley and then found great lift over the towers on Bruce. He landed after 1.5hrs or so.

Definitely some of the nicest flying conditions I've seen on Saltspring. All told, I covered about 25km or so - all with a low altitude limit. Here's hoping that we can get that increased one day...

Short video taken during my flight: