Cornwall 2016

After visiting St Agnes Head earlier this year and doing a little slope soaring there I came away thinking that it was a great place to fly, so I thought I would suggest a club trip down to Cornwall for a few days.

Three of us drove down there on the Sunday, the rest followed the following day.

Day one, Barry, Adrian and myself decided to travel on Sunday, we all arrived at about the same time but as Barry and me were camping we had to put up our tents before meeting Adrian at St Agnes Head. The wind direction was good and we had a good couple of hours flying from the cliffs.

This was our campsite after Steve and Campervan Dave had arrived.

Sunday afternoon flying.

Day two, the wind direction was still westerly so we spent the day at St Agnes again, waiting for the others to arrive, Mike Leek was first followed by Steve Bowdler, then Robert and Mike Payne who were travelling together.

The wind was quite strong so I decided to erect my small wind break in the hope it would provide some shelter, which it did at first but slowly the wind speed increased and the shelter couldn’t take the strain so it was taken down, or to be more accurate screwed up and stuffed into it`s bag.

Day three, the wind today had shifted around to the south so flying at St Agnes was out, instead it was decided that we travel to Dodman Point on the south coast, after miles of narrow country lanes and single track roads we arrived to find the coast covered in sea mist, only Robert and Mike Payne were brave enough to fly. The rest of us just watched until boredom set in and we left them to it, this was a little unfortunate as an hour or two after we left the mist cleared and Robert and Mike had a few hours of clear conditions.

Back at the campsite Steve and me thought we would have a go at flying our DLG`s, mine broke after the first throw, Steve was a little more successful the only thing was he lost it on the other side of the hedge that surrounded the camp site, after trying to find a way around to the other side Steve thought to climb over/through said hedge, plane rescued he had to climb back.

Day four, Wind stayed southerly but had moved around to the east, so it was back to Dodman Point, we had found a better looking site to fly from the day before also a shorter route to walk from the car park. Once again the dreaded sea mist prevailed, but the better site encouraged more of us to fly, it was very misty and visibility poor but we flew foamies as best we could, there were quite a few collisions and crashes as we were all flying quite close to each other.

However by early afternoon the mist lifted and we had quite a decent afternoon flying,

The last day was spent back at St Agnes Head, the wind direction was good at the start but slowly moved more southerly as the day went on so by late afternoon it become more and more difficult.

However there were several of the local flyers there and they turned out to be a friendly bunch, lots of story`s were swopped and advise given.

I was a bit dubious about camping but I quite enjoyed it, the thing about camping is that there is always something that has to be done so you are kept busy, a large tent and comfortable bed is a must though.

I think everyone enjoyed it, and we will have to do it again.