At about 09:00 on Saturday Morning the sky over Ennis looked very promising even at that early stage & I made a decision to go flying. I rang the usual suspects over my way & the only Hangies heading out were going to the Galtees. I opted to go to the Devils Bit.
Despite travelling to the Bit for many years in search of a good XCs & coming home empty-handed, I knew this site had the potential. In the past Fran Denny flew 42 miles to
Baganelstown & Bernard Skelly few 63 miles to Hook Head. I thought to myself maybe
today my perseverance would pay off.
On arriving at the NW take off, the sky looked good & there were regular thermals
coming through but in between the cycles it the wind was light enough. After setting up
my glider, Dorin & Stephen arrived on the hill & as Cross Country flying was on all our
minds we exchanged phone numbers. (I was to do well from this exchange of information
as it turned out).
At about 13:00 I launched into what I thought was a good cycle & 2 minutes after
launch I was 80 feet below takeoff looking at the trees. The “Bit” isn’t a high site &
from a Hang Gliding perspective, if you get any more that 100 feet below take off after
launch then generally the landing field will usually be your destination. Flying out a
bit I made my first encounter with what was to turn out to be a House Thermal. This
got me comfortably above ridge height but after 20 min I was back down again to the
same location requesting a second save. And 10 minutes after that I was looking for save
number 3. But this time I got something a bit meatier & climbed to 1300 Meters. Happy
days I thought, I’m off.
The first thing the came very much to mind at the top of that first good climb was how
cold it was. It was about Zero degrees & I was only wearing a T-shirt under my flying
suit. Even my hands were cold & I was wearing good gloves. The second thing was that I
had no water with me & this could be an issue in the event that my flight was going to be
longer than usual.
Anyhow there was a reasonable amount of cloud about so I didn’t need to milk the lift
right up to Base. Thermals were roughish at took a bit of effort to work but for the first
hour of my XC progress was reasonably easy with a good source of cloud. However,
when I got to Freshford I was low. I picked out a landing field early so I could fully
concentrate on trying to get up. I was getting nothing from the town itself so I flew over
two adjoining tilled fields to the West of the Town & sure enough at 320 metres ASL I
got my first low save of the day.
Progress from Freshford to North of Kilkenny was easy enough but from that point there
was a sizeable blue hole in front of me which at the time I didn’t think I’d get the better
of. There was no indications in the sky for lift so I flew as efficiently as possible trying to
maximize my glide & also to fly over ground which might act as thermal generators. A
Couple of Kms North West of Gowran I was back down to 320 Metres Asl in search of
a save. As before at Freshford, flying over tilled fields provided me with the with the lift
source.
High again North of Gowran, I could relax a bit a take in the view. Leinster & the
Blackstairs were beginning to loom large in front of me. I knew that I had at least 45
miles in the bag at this stage & I progressed onward. For a while I was unsure what to
do. It was quite blue in front & I was considering trying to make it to the Bone setters
field for an easy retrieve. However I was soon tempted to deviate when I saw some cloud
forming west of the Diamond Field. Sure enough this worked & I milked the lift for all it
was worth. Whilst climbing I was looking out for anyone flying on Leinster & couldn’t
see anyone.
I then flew between Leinster & the blackstairs over the Scullogue Gap. I was still above
Mast Height as this stage & it was an amazing experience for me to make it to Leinster &
beyond on an XC without having to use either Leinster or the Blackstairs for lift. Smoke
from a fire indicated my next lift source & from then on progress was relatively easy until
I got near the river Slaney. I knew I could cross the river easily but there was nothing but
blue ahead & I would have to land shortly after that. It was also getting a bit turbulent at
this stage & I didn’t know it at the time but it was the sea breeze mixing it up with the
Higher Northwesterly airflow.
I picked out a massive field for landing & I knew the wind higher up was NW but
whenever I flew this direction over the field I was travelling far too fast. Then I realized
that there was a strong sea breeze & I would have to change my approach accordingly.
I picked the correct direction for landing but fatigue was a big factor as this stage due
being cold for a lot of the flight & having no Camelback. I didn’t flare hard enough I
came down heavy on the base bar. This type of landing would have made no impression
on an Aluminium Base Bar but alas, my base bar was made of Carbon. (The first question
a Hang glider pilot asks on meeting another HG pilot who flies with a Carbon Base bar
is “How many have you broke”). A rather expensive end to my flight but I wasn’t too
bothered. My GPS was telling me that I had covered 106KM.
Many thanks to Dorin who drove all the way from Templemore to pick me up. He was
thoughtful enough to pick up some fast food along the way. We didn’t get back to the hill
until 22:30 that night.
