Windbank/Knipe Scar/Hawkswick
Changes to Sites’ Guide:
Delete all reference to the £1.50 daily flying fee.
The £1 per car per day parking fee at Windbank remains. If the honesty box is on display then it is probably easier to use that rather than trying to track down Mr Dibb; the owner.
Don’t worry about trying to remember the code for the combination lock – it’s long gone.
Whernside
Vehicles are no longer permitted to drive up the bridleway to Ellerbeck Farm. Please park below the ‘PRIVATE ROAD, ABSOLUTELY NO MOTOR VEHICLES’ sign and walk.
Another option is to get dropped off/picked up at Bruntscar (SD 739790) and walk up the obvious path to Whernside. The best landing field is the one just short of the ‘Private Land No Parking’ sign but if you can’t penetrate that far the first field that you walk through on your way up is flat near the bottom; just watch out for boulders and pot holes! Please, please do not park anywhere on this route. It is used by literally hundreds of walkers each day and if they see one car parked there they all think that they can do the same.
The Hill Inn car park is for ‘patrons only’, but there are a couple of lay-bys just above it.
March Club Night
Jack Harrison the man behind Weatherjack (www.weatherjack.co.uk) will be with us this Thursday from 8pm at the Riverside Hotel. If you don’t already know weatherjack its the most visited website for gliding and XC forecasts and what Jack himself doesn’t know about flying weather probably isn’t worth knowing.
He’ll be talking specifically on conditions in the Dales so there’ll
be plenty of tips for you to pick up about your own flying. Bring some questions because he’ll be answering those too.
See you there.
2007 British Clubs Challenge
Do you want to improve your flying skills, compete against others whilst flying set tasks, maybe even go XC for the first time, all with the support and encouragement of more experienced pilots? If so then the British Clubs Challenge is for you! The BCC is an informal competition designed to encourage pilots to improve their skills whilst having fun. Teams from around the country compete in a series of rounds against each other, with the top six clubs progressing to the final round held in the summer. Any pilot with a Club Pilot rating is encouraged to take part. There is no limit on numbers, and each club can enter as many teams as it likes. So if you fancy taking part, have a word with Sean Ogi or Kev McLoughlin (for PG) or Trev Birkbeck (for HG), and take a look at the BCC website, www.flybcc.co.uk. The proposed dates for the Dales round are 12TH & 13th May.
The following people have already joined the 2007 BCC Paragliding squad.
Kevin Mcloughlin, Pete logan, Sean Hodgeson, Kathryn Rawlinson, Pete balmforth, Dougie Crossley, Alex Clobeck, Richard Shirt, Mark Elliott, Tony Blacker, John Ellison, Richard cardwell, Dave Todd.
Please email Kev or Sean pgcomps@dhpc.org.uk to join in the fun.
Day 5 at the Accuracy Championships
Day 5
More snow this morning at 08.00hrs, but the organisers were confident that the heavy fall would be over within an hour. They were right & we were flying by 10.00hrs. The weather has been a bit overcast during the day, with some blue sky starting to show through by the end of the day. The weather was extremely mild by the standard of previous days – no gloves or hat for much of the day. Read more »
Day 3&4, Accuracy Championships
Day 3
Whilst the air temp this am was -12 C, once outside, the windchill became apparent, taking the temperature to -25 C. Brrrr! Joanne & the other judges started early at 09.30hrs to set up for the competition. Unfortunately the high winds delayed start, so they all ended up getting cold on the ice. It is comparable to sitting on a ski chair lift all morning… At the midday briefing, it was decided to abandon the day’s flying due to the marginal conditions. The flying results therefore remain the same today. The rest of the day has been spent in a meeting discussing the rules, and there is currently a judging seminar going on. Read more »
Day 2 at the Accuracy Championships
Another clear, cold day. The start was delayed until it warmed up to -15 degrees C, having started at -18. The ice is holding up ok, though Nick did put his foot through at one stage! His heated boots seemed to have saved the day for him (& a change of socks). Read more »
Tony Blacker’s Accuracy Championship Update
The start of this epic journey to the 4th Paragliding Accuracy Championships went well. We all arrived at the airport (Stansted) in good time and distributed the last of our sponsors’ equipment to the remaining team members. The Regatta, Dare2be range of skiwear was supplied through Trekwear. We were all given a polar (winter) and standard Buffs with the Union Jack printed on them. 3 pairs of sunglasses with lens anti-fog cleaning kit was given to each of us by Eye Level Optics. Time to check in. This can be a difficult time due to each of us having our glider bags plus the normal amount of luggage for the 12-day event, but things went well. After taking the gliders through the oversized booking-in area we all passed through security without any problems. A quick look around the shopping area and we were on our way to the gate. Read more »
Shoutbox for the Website
Just take a look at the bottom left of this screen. There’s a new area called a shoutbox which is for leaving quick messages on the website for others to see. The idea is that if you’re going flying or want to know where other people are going then leave a message.
To leave a message click the 
to go to the bottom of the shoutbox if you can’t already see it and write a sentence or two.
Monthly paragliding e-magazine
Monthly paragling magazine with articles, gossip and news from the paragliding world. Aimed not just at the top bombing comp boys it’s also for the clubbies amongst us.
http://www.piecanfly.com/
