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Long Mynd Soaring Club
Reiteration of the point to not fly behind the road when top landing. This is especially important for Hang Gliders who believe that they can penetrate back into wind once behind the road, however experience over many years has shown that this is often not the case. The road runs diagonally behind our launch field, and it is natural to assume that approaching into wind is as easy from by the entrance gate as the far corner, but this does not normally appear to be the case. This may be due to the effects of where the road drops down the hill and acting as a venturi near that area, or the particular profile of the launch area. Landing on the road, cars or fence is really not a good idea, and we don’t want to have experienced pilots zooming in low over the cars and giving the false impression to less experienced pilots that this is anything except a very highly skilled and potentially risky manouvre.
Most of our sites are rarely used for little other reason than laziness. Paragliders are not impossible to carry up our little hills (try going to Scotland to fly), and the other sites give plenty of new experiences to behold. If unsure about details, contact a coach or the sites officer for a chat before going.
The small field adjacent to the east end car park is now covered with electric fencing tape which has created about a dozen separate horse paddocks. There are a lot of horses in there, so on the basis that we are not supposed to land there if there are horses in the field, I would say that the field is completely out of bounds for us - at least for the short term if not longer.
It is a mandatory requirement purely on safety grounds that Paragliders do no launch or attempt to do so to the left of the white marked slabs running down the field approximately 1/3 of the way across the field. If any paraglider slope lands in this area - especially low down, then they must bundle their wing up and walk across to the north to the normal Paraglider launch area. Please remember that there may not have been any hang gliders around when you launched, but they could be just out of your sight if you are low, and waiting for the right ‘safe’ moment when no paragliders are passing their launch or landing path.
The comments below are from a Hang Glider pilot and should give a balanced perspective as to why this is so important.
"My main concern is for overshooting HG pilots. It has been increasingly the case that PG pilots who slope land in front of the HG take off and overshoot area, either wait where they land and take off again from there or inflate their canopy and walk it back to the PG take off area. When the conditions are marginal (hence the slope landing), it is much more likely that a HG pilot will overshoot his top landing and a canopy that pops up in front of him leaves him no where to go -> fatal accident (it has happened elsewhere). These PG pilots have no view of the top of the field, so have no idea if a hang glider is about to come over when they inflate. Other issues I have are that PG pilots have the habit of turning left after take off and staying in front of the HG take off area (and overshoot area), rather than simply transiting through. This either means that the HG pilot does not aviate at all, or takes off anyway and causes the PG pilot to take sudden avoiding action. Talking to many low time HG pilots, I know that they frequently don’t fly when it is like this for fear of collision on take off or if they overshoot their top landing. As an experienced pilot, I am happy to take my chance but still dislike the potential conflict. The ridge is 4 miles long after all, why not use it? Finally, although not so much of a safety issue, the packing up of PG wings in the middle of the LZ creates a much bigger obstacle for a HG pilot landing than a PG. This is true, not only the less experienced, but for any pilot that suffers rough air on approach."
Due to the ongoing problems around the launch area, the club are putting into place a number of additional aids to remind everyone of certain big issues.
Additional signs on the gate and notice board
The white stones which mark the separation between HG and PG’s are to be cleared of grass overgrowth to make them more visible
The committee have approved the purchase and installation of a number of tie downs to be permanently fitted into the ground at the area where HG’s are currently normally rigged. They will be flush to the ground so avoid any trip risk. Pilots will need to bring their own rope and use them at their own risk. We do not have a date yet for when they will be in place so watch this space.
On busy days this is becoming a significant issue, with complaints about the inability for any rescue vehicles being able to get past. Please makes sure that you park diagonally in such a way that the car does not stick out into the main tarmac roadway at all - if your vehicle is too long to do that then please drop off your gear and find somewhere suitable. Anyone that can lift share, then please do so if it looks like being a busy day - this is not just weekends as we are now getting a lot of people available in the week when the forecast is good. Even if you just park further along the top road maybe at pole cottage (the clump of trees by the modellers car park). Try to park in such a way as to allow as many vehicles to squeeze in as possible. If you park along the gliding club fence, make sure that you are completly off the tarmac road, but beware of grounding your vehicle due to the hump between the road and the ditch.
Following investigation of numerous suggestions, the committee has agreed to spend a small sum of money moving our fence adjacent to the road in by a few feet to allow longer and badly parked vehicles to remain clear of the road. Consideration has been made to the potential effect on landing for both types of aircraft.
Please make sure that you read the updated sites detail in the new 2009 edition of the sites guide. It really is important to get a briefing from experienced pilots (experienced specifically at Cordon) on the day and before you launch. The hill has peculiarities about the way the air flows around the hill, which vary from hour to hour. It has caught out many a pilot of all levels of general experience and ability. I’ve flown there a few times summer and winter, gone XC from there, but I still don’t count myself as an experienced Corndon pilot
The incidence of pilots flying acro moves in front of take off has caused a number of issues to many pilots. Specifically it often causes less experienced pilots to stand on take off and not launch at all. They are unaware of the capabiliies of the acro pilots, the space they need, their own abilities to avoid or be avoided, so lose good airtime and get frustrated. It is not acceptable for an acro pilot to cause a low airtime pilot to stay on the ground due to fear of getting caught up in someones rapid descent. Please go along the ridge to the north where this is not likely to cause as much of an issue.