rob_jones

I am round in Croydon, but will drive to wherever.

Im actually up for this one if you fancy a few of us doing it

Steve, there are a few of us on here from not to far away. I am in Croydon & Mark Morgy whom I fly with is down in Witterings. There is also Seymore whom has a launch site about 20 mins from you in Pullborough

Honestly, no need to chill, I just figured I would stir things up a bit - we cant all go round blowing smoke up our own asses and who honestly wouldnt want to whizz along a highway over a freakin big bridge, and film it........or maybe thats just me. No insult intended

Well that certainly brightened up my day, nice to see the WI is going strong [youtubevideo]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fLn53342C8[/youtubevideo] Lets see if this video can get you all up in arms

Oh wheres all the free spirit gone? This sounds like a fourm for the "Womens Institute" Isnt the whole idea behind Free Sports is that we are each already the outsiders, have you ever tried to explain to someone exactly what running down a field with an engine on your back with every intention of flying off like a bird. Granted these guys "appear" to be taking piss out of laws but in a way they are only amplifying what is in each of us, if it isnt you really shouldnt be taking to the skies. I hear gardening is fun and safe. Its far to easy to sit and pass judgement and get annoyed but the reality is that vid is pretty darn cool and fun to watch

[youtubevideo] [/youtubevideo]

I would have to disagree, he doesnt get to represent Red Bull (and no doubt full sponsorship) because he flies in benign conditions. To me he put on the show that he was paid to and nobody was hurt, I just wish I had the skill to do the same.

As I recall our flight plan was - "fly fast and directly home, if I fall from the sky get your car and come get me" So when I see you going round n round I can only presume you seen something behind. It was a good flight and I loved the coast cruising.

I just try to capture the moment - problem is getting the time to edit it all. So some info from the weekend. Seymour very kindly allowed us to take off from his farm in Pullborough, for those that have not been there it truly is a launch dream with gently sloping fields in every direction. We decided on an early morning flight and met up @ 0800hrs. Wind conditions 2 mph (if that) and pretty darn hot. I took off first and waited for Mark and Seymour the nil winds and Seymour insistance on a reverse launch dictatated a wait in the air for me. Not wanting to burn fuel I landed again and waited for them to take off. We all took off and made a beeline for the dyke, Mark loves to fly low level and stayed down I decided to go up and cruise above the inversion, this seen me fly for about an hour at 2500ft, after clearing brighton I went higher to about 3700ft. From there we spotted some paragliding students on the ground and Mark spiralled down to say hello to them. I dropped down to 800ft and followed Mark out along the coast. We flew for another hour or so along the beach to Newhaven where I spotted flags fluttering nicely with an on shore breeze and a wide open space to land. I decided to take a break and land. The wind by now is starting to build and I would put it at around 18mph or so (defo enough to kitesurf in) This made taking off a little tense and mark managed to get dragged dinging his prop on the way. I had an un eventful take off and decided to push on along towards Beachy Head (we had wanted to free fly along the cliffs) I stayed at about 200ft and about 20metres out to sea, so smooth and nice crusing. Looking back I could see Mark out of his harness so I decided to turn back, turning and going with the wind my ground speed went warp drive and suddenly I am whizzing along. I land again and we chat about the plan of action, his engine is still spinning and the prop seems ok - we decided to make a run for home. I follow Mark out and we are now hitting nearly 80kmh so are back in Pullborough and our waiting cars in no time, of course Mark cannot resist the odd thermalling and I leave him to circle upwards. Some stats from the GPS Average Speed - 38kmh Top Speed - 77kmh Distance - 114km Flight time - 4 or so hours Fuel Used - 7l (we both bave Bailey 4 strokes)

Hi All, Been a while since I posted (been focusing on the mountaineering, Mt Blanc flight is in 3 weeks) Morgy and I met up on sat and went for a coastal run along the south coast, ended up being pretty epic with a dinged prop and top speeds of 78kph. Attached is a vid showing the day [youtubevideo] [/youtubevideo]

Life for me this season has been focused around next months Mt Blanc expedition and flight (planning to summit and speedride from the top) But I did attend the Lakes Paraglide festival last weekend, I took the motor up and had a cool 40 min flight over the lake and arena. Quite interesting taking off facing a lake - sort of limits the bail out options. FLight was uneventfull other than a few 8 up thermals that frankly still scare the crap out of me, im sure I just cant get used to a pitch positve wing, at least thats what I tell myself as I am sure on my Karma an 8 up would be like a dream come true. Anyways the lakes is a brill weekend and fun was had by all, we fly speedwings and gliders/PPG and even managed a spot of climbing in. I will try and post some pics Rob

sounds like it was a fun day, sadly I am still in New York and not a single flight to be had to return me to the mother nation. Would much rather of been with you lot flying around the UK

Pete - does that indicate that all posts go via a censorship process?

Most of this footage was taken with a Hero HD and edited with an iMAC- no jumpiness and really easy to use. I love the quality of the footage from these cameras [youtubevideo] [/youtubevideo]

awesome write up, the only thing missing was me. Once I get this mountaineering training out the way I will be back in the game

ref reserve - nope, your ass is scraping the ground most of the time so a reserve would give you zero help. I did hear last year alone 9 speed riders died, most are just found alone at the bottom of a run with no explanation as to what may have gone wrong. The wings are un certified and you are pretty much testing them for the vendors.

Yeah I figured the crashes added a little extra, the problem comes from flying and skiing - if you compress to much the wing looses pressure and your now doing about 30mph with a sack of washing flapping around. The guy who hit the rock was a very good skier and when trying to do a chase cam on me was like he was stood still. The trimmers, I put them on fast to test them out. My Fusion has trimmers and of course theres alot of play on the webbing but on these wings its no more than an inch between on and off. But yes you really do feel a difference, the speed increases as does the angle of bank once you crank a turn in. But even on slow its still plenty fast enough and I had mine on slow 90% of the time.

heres my cut of events. Story behind this video is that one of our team managed only a 25% success rate on his launches. Now unlike PPG some of the speedriding take offs are pretty committed and normally finish off with a cliff or trees that you need to clear. Pedro always managed to cock it up especially when we had an audience. [youtubevideo] [/youtubevideo]

[youtubevideo] [/youtubevideo]

Some of the footage from our trip. Cameras were the HD Hero which are pretty darn amazing [youtubevideo] [/youtubevideo]

Its actually really quiet out here so the lifts are a breeze. your right about the getting down part, average flight is less than 2 mins so we are churning the miles

Guys, This time of the year I ditch the PPG and PG and opt for Skis and a 14m Speed Wing. I am on the eve of my last night out here in Chamonix and thought Id let you know of the adventures todate. Firstly speed riding is such a young sport and I had heard in the UK only 10 or so active riders are out there. From the small internet world we live in 4 of that 10 managed to arrange a trip to Chamonix to apply some liberal peer pressure and extend all our flying abilities. Day One - we are on the mountain for no more than an hour when our most experienced rider "Dan" pops his 11m wing up trips and twists his knee, one pop and cruciate ligament is a thing of the past. He was quickly taken off the mountain and sent to hospital, flying home the next day. Day Two and onwards - consisted of greater and faster runs with some 6000ft descents being cranked out by the remaining three. I have plenty of footage and will upload it when I get home. We had an incident whereby one of the guys skied blind into a crevasse (all launches are done off piste so it comes with the terrority) firstly I thought it was a small hole but after dropping ropes and abseiling in to retrieve his Go Pro it opened into a large and deep ice cave. Temp was minus 20 degrees. Tomorrow is our last day so the plan is to nail the ultimate run, North Face off the Aquille du Midi. This is a 2800m vertical descent and the launch is full pretty full on. some photos and a quick write up here. http://alpineflyer.com/gallery-4/ http://alpineflyer.com/

you know me Mark, always ready for anything. So count me in if its doable, although I dont fancy a drive all the way to yours so lets meet in the middle somewhere.

Yep that was me - on the field there. I also have had the odd paramotor launch from there