Photos by Zeno Kerr

Download fullsize images from flickr.

Photos by Brian Steele

Download fullsize images from flickr.

Scottish Nationals Paragliding Series. The SMPC round of this friendly competition was held on the 23rd September.

Hi there,

Well I hope everyone enjoyed themselves at the SMPC round of the Scot Nats this weekend.

That's the first time we have take off from that particular part of the ben lawers range and I was well impressed. Thanks to Quentin for arranging the 4x4 access and I hope we can use it again!

It was certainly a friendlier take off and more open than the ones we would have encountered if we had all trooped up Ben Ghlas.  It was also better suited to the size of group that we had and the experience level. etc. My initial concerns were that we tend to fly at the Ben Lawers range when theres less wind, and a higher base, so being hemmed in by a strong wind and a low base with a lot of new pilots didn't appeal hence the initial pondering/ parawaiting.

Sorry I didn't make the briefing this morning at the watersports cafe- I didn't surface until after 11 when the deafening sound of rain on my tent became too much. The night in lochearnhead was fairly lively/amusing.

Thanks to Quentin, Cliff, Mike George and Dave for task setting and to Dorita for arranging the hospitable welcome & camping at the watersports centre.

Here's my 'flight report'/ waffle

After the window opened I must have ground-handled and walked about another 400ft to get to the point where it was consistently soarable in the gully above and to the east of launch. I am a bit of a masochist when it comes to walking up, sometimes its worth it, although I heard that after I flew away the wind switched on a bit better for the main part of the hill. The wind felt OK at cloudbase but when I headed off over ben Ghlas and on to meall corranaich (the bowl above ben lawers car park) I got a real kicking and the wind was really funnelling through between Ghlas, and tarmachan and the air was pretty rotory.  At one point my wing went parachutal then dived and spun me round pointing me over the back of the ridge - looking over the reservoir and dam and I was shouting at myself "You stupid tw*t".

Thankfully after a minute or two I escaped from there on full speed bar, and made it to the low flanks of Tarmachan ridge where I was joined by Gordon smith, zeno, cliff, Tim Jackson and a couple of others who had straightlined it from Ghlas. Gordon and I were really low - I was soaring at sheep height, and saying hi to walkers before we finally got high enough in the dynamic lift to push out and connect with the climb that the others had cruised into. Base wasn't high above tarmachan and I stayed far out as I wanted to give myself a safety margin incase the wind was strong on the ridge-tops. It was pretty boyant and we all creamed along the tarmachan doing about 50-65kmph, quite a sight!

As we blatted along I was glancing down at the loch and wary of the wind, I saw rippled on the loch and smoke down in the valley moving swiftly. I then spotted a lerge set of powerlines and at that point decided to continue to glen lochay, both from a safety point of view and just wanting to go a bit further. Bob Matthews was ahead of me soaring on Meall Ghaordaidh. Although I didn't get much height I had a good tailwind so got a couple of kilometres up the valley by hugging the ridge, chasing a stag along the hillside at one point ABOVE me. superb.

Looking at the gps I had done 16.2k from launch. Not amazing, but an enjoyable and challenging flight nonetheless. Bob continued on and got more soaring at Creag Nam Bodach above Kenknock.

Thankfully despite my worries about Killin for landing, Al Brown, Zeno and co all made it safely in to land in large fields surrounded by pubs, Al Brown tells me that as soon as he landed  he had to leg it over barbed wire fence with his wing... as some cows were taking an interest in him and his tasty looking sigma6 !!   Top tip number 200, if you must land with livestock.. choose sheep over cows!