why sitting on the ground can be so nice

[gary stenhouse]

Sometimes it’s so good to be on the ground?
Well after some nice floating about and some decent thermals at the coast yesterday, my bladder gave in and I landed. Only to hear Nick on the radio saying there’s fingers out at sea get down now. Well all I can say is my god, I have never seen a change so quickly, with massive cb development and howling winds in minutes. The problem was 7 plus pilots going backwards some in big ears getting thrashed about others I think frozen to their seats waiting for divine intervention. 3 got blew out the back and I would say that only luck saved their lives as none of them gained any safe height they just turned and then turned again back into wind far too early. They somehow got away with it, one guy was now pinned standing on his speed bar for 10 minute and somehow got forward enough to land.
I must say I have never seen such a serious situation unfold and no one to get seriously injured. Remember if this ever happens to you, first thing try and get forward if you straight away are pinned on bar gain as much height as you can then turn down wind for as far as you can go then turn into wind. Landing backwards is not as much a problem, landing in rotor is, as when you hit rotor your chances of landing safely are very limited as you will not normally get warning until you hit the ground.
Another one of those lessons you get without any harm, never take your eye off the ball as you can get hit when you least expect it.

Cheers Gary

[Jim Bittlestone]

Nicks blog at doyouwanna backs up what gary says here. When we were out we had some big cb development so we landed sharpish, only to see it disperse just as fast. You never know tho and safety is always the best policy. The power of these big clouds are awesome just glad to see everyone got down safely.

[Graeme Gilroy]

Forgive my ignorance Gary, Jim- you mentioned fingers out at sea, not sure ive ever heard that term whats it mean
cheers Graeme

[ron freeman]

Pilot error Gary, the forcast was for freshing winds with aproaching fronts ! pleased to hear they got away with it this time

[brian day]

Graeme,
It refers to the patterns made on the water by the wind. Gusty winds produce narrow strips of agitated water, which are refered to as 'fingers', I'm sure you would recognise the feature if you saw it and would realise that it was a sign of wind conditions approaching that were different to the ones you were currently experiencing.
Ronnie, not sure, but I think you may have been refering to the forecast for Britain, Gary was in Spain. Could be wrong though, as I havn't got a clue what the forecast for Spain was.

[Graeme Gilroy]

Cheers Brian

[Fingers]

There was road works on the south bound A19 which developed into a heavy tail back, the A1 had a speed trap and an ice cream van was seen over turned on the slip road exit near Peterlee. These bloody idiots should have really checked the trafic news, good to hear they managed to get away with it, this time.

Just to follow on with Ronny logic.!

[AlastairW]

And anyway Steve, what were you doing out to sea??

Out to lunch maybe, but I can not see you as a jolly jack tar..........

[gary stenhouse]

yep it was spain and blue skies and sunshine, funny how the coast always seems to catch most folk out. check out my flights and you will see the wind speed was less than 10mph

[ron freeman]

Gary, cb development doesn't just happen in minutes also one of the best indicators of wind direction and strength is over the sea especially when your flying above it...

If pilots continue to fly in these developing conditions expect trouble.

[gary stenhouse]

the strange thing was andy shaw green draggons cfi bill sampson liz sampson all top pilots and very inteligent only got down with 1-3 minutes to spare. there was only a few small clowds out at see nothing to worry about. the clouds only changed when the wind came in, pitty i did not video it as it was so quick

cheers gary

[ron freeman]

Gary, you probably have more experience than Andy when it comes to flying coastal sites, his school is 60 miles inland in the UK and most his training is done on the winch.

To many pilots think that flying the coast is a doddle compared to flying inland... they forget that weather systems approach much faster over water than inland so you have to keep a good look out for any tell tale signs of any change.