morning we're here at Devils Dyke let me take you through what I do when I come
to a new site. Let's assume that you and I have never flown here before and I'll
analyze the site look at it, identify the risks to get your head ready for flying.
So first of all you look at the launch area have a look and tell me if you can
see any hazards?
okay I think you're getting the idea this really fantastic launch area yeah
we're very lucky to have so much space you can pretty much layout anywhere so
there's nothing hazardous on the launch site itself except for maybe another
paraglider pilot. Nope, he's not looking like any danger! Okay but what
have we got here? All right you have some obstacles up here
it's usually where the spectators sit and watch us and you've got another
obstacle sitting over here. Now when you've got one thing sitting in the
launch site like this you can guarantee somebody is going to wrap themselves
around it because you're trying to run away from the obstacle so your glider
tips over and it pulls you into the obstacle. So setup well away from there.
All right this is the typical place where everybody sets up the gliders you
can see it's a lazy man's approach of a short walk from the car straight out
there. That's fine in light wind and what do you think about this as a hazard? If
you're looking here we're sitting right at the top of the hill here so this is
the point where you're gonna have the wind accelerating from this white line
back you're gonna have a venturi the winds gonna accelerate through here and
you've got all of your cars and you've got the pub and you've got a forest. Let's
go check that out!
right so I've come through the back of the forest here we're behind the site
and this is always a good idea is just to take a little walk
behind your launch area and go and have a look and see where you'd end up if you
got blown over the back. So my launch site is back up there the other side of
those trees you can see if you get pushed back and lifted a little bit you're
gonna come over these trees you're gonna come into this area and then you've got
quite a deep pit going down it goes right down into the devil's dyke there
before another little sharp kicker ridge so this is a pretty nasty area to get
blown over in that I expect that line there to create a lot of rotor, that's
pretty much the ideal shape for creating rotor where you've got a fall, a
low-pressure and the wind will come down and curl around so if you fly over here
your wing at some point is going to get hammered from the top so this is a
significant hazard although it looks all nice and pleasant and grassy the ground
is just as hard anywhere so you want to avoid this. That little piece of grass up
there, we'll go and visit that. Alright so that was the grass you were looking at
there this is behind now instead of going into
that that pit behind the pub if you opted to come over here you can see you
got a really nice run down wind so I'd be wanting to move myself over this side
if I was gonna get blown over the back that's good to know having come here now
I know a really good escape route so you can see again the way the wind would
accelerate over this little crest the bump here if you imagine the air on top
is going straight and this area is getting kind of getting
squeezed over the top so from around about that point you're going to find
the wind accelerating and pushing you back and you really don't want to get
pushed back over this because you've got no real options except getting into the
turbulence and the rotor behind that. Let's walk along the top here and see if we
can see any other hazards. hi! so what I'm trying to do is just come around the
area and just scout it out while I'm not under pressure flying just see what's
what's here any hidden dangers and also look at the site from different angles.
hectic! you don't want to land there. OK the ants have taken over
that corner. not really a hazard is it? but have a look at the site from here
we'll hop up into the wall so we can get a better idea of what's going on. this kind
of thing obviously you don't want to land on the upwind side of it and get
blown into it but that's a pretty obvious hazard you're going to avoid it
I can see somebody flying down to the landing field the landing is down in
front there and looks like the learnings in within easy glide we'll talk about in
the moment can you see what's happening to the slope over there it's changing
angle over there the ridge is running like that and it comes around in this
bowl and it goes this way now assuming we soaring on the slope this is the
take-off sites over this way, the wind would be coming in from about there. can
you see the problem? where's your hazard? if you take that wind line over there
and you see that little clump of trees? the wind is then gonna be spilling into
that bowl, it's gonna tend to want to come around and into that bowl and you
might get a little rotor there which will then get pushed back it's got
nowhere to go so it's gonna get pushed into this corner so you can expect this
air in this corner here to be fairly churned up and the other thing that's
going to happen is the winds running along it's being diverted even if it's
coming from there it's gonna be diverted along the slope but the wind from here
is going to be diverted that way and you're gonna get a compression in
the corner where the wind is all squeezed into this narrow little channel
here on the side so that little piece there I'm gonna expect that's my danger
for the site that's where the winds gonna accelerate the most it's gonna be
the most turbulent and I'm gonna get pushed back. is it a problem?
well it's prep for that. look at that nice big open grassy field
not a big issue that's what makes Devils Dyke one of the safest sites to fly even
in strong wind you definitely don't want to go over the back at the far side over
there by the pub. you don't want to get blown back in that part but if you set
up and you fly across this way and you go for that little channel there you
have got quite a lot of safety, you can get blown back you can land backwards in a
grassy field like that, it's quite safe. This is below launch we've come down
below launch you can see the slope gets nicely steeper so you should be
launching well off the top and you can see there's a hazard here as a barbed
wire fence so you kind of mentally prepare decide where your cutoff point
is where you've got a hazard in front of launch. I would say if you're not flying
by this little crest here when you've got 20 meters from the fence line you
want to pull the brakes stop the glider set up again because something's gone
wrong. So you give yourself a line where you
say okay beyond that point that's my abort if I hit that and I'm
not flying -- killswitch! That can make a big difference when you're under
pressure lots of people watching you, YouTube cameras!
You already know ... that's my line then you can stop safely. Okay this kind of angle
change in a slope is very helpful for a for a safe launch site you can see the
angle change easier over there but it does mean that if there's any kind of
wind and you're running off the slope you should be airborne long before you
get to any hazards. Cool so that's just a quick overview, I would definitely
recommend going down to the landing field going and having a look there and
assessing your landing risks. All right so we're down here at the landing field
now I don't think you could ask for better, you've got a flat field at the
bottom here, a nice run to land on at the end and you've got a sloping field
leading down so it's good to come down here. I can see from this that I
want to come out to near the road so that I'm not getting lift off the field.
If you just glide down the field it'll probably just keep lifting and lifting
lifting all the way down but coming down to the road and then setting up along
the road you've got a very easy landing area. Okay your only hazard usually when
you've got a road you're going to have some kind of telephone line I don't see
anything here but that I think is something hiding in the tree line on the
other side of the road there and you've got obviously got some buildings and
houses and things so if my wind is coming from that direction if it's still
the same as soaring on launch I would expect to be getting rotor where I'm
standing right now, bear in mind this is a wide-angle camera so it's making
things look a bit further away than they are. I estimate that's I don't know 50
meters away and in a soarable wind you're going to be getting messy air from there
so you want to set yourself up so that you've got the air coming in from a nice
angle where there aren't any obstacles. I always come down and have a
look at the landing field on a new site just to make sure that there aren't any
hidden hazards. Nothing lying on the ground, wires that
you can't see from up high and that just gives you a peace of mind that you know
you can set up easily, you don't have to worry about it and you can focus and
your flying and not worry about the landing. The only hazard that I could
foresee on a landing like this is if your wind direction changes you've got a
little streamer there make sure you know where the streamer is or set up a wind
sock because you could be soaring up there fly out sea breeze could come
through and you could be setting up in a completely different wind direction.
which if it's in the last few meters can really surprise you and then send you
into some of these obstacles that you weren't expecting so get some sort of
wind indicator down on the landing before you go up and fly it's a good
idea. So everything that I'm seeing here is telling me this site is really safe
as long as you flying in conditions that aren't too strong you can play here, no
worries. It's well worth driving, particularly if you in the first couple
of years that you're flying, it's worth putting in the miles just to get to an
environment like this so that you build your skills quickly instead of being
kind of on the limit flying in hairy conditions or you know really tricky
launch sites. Just build up a foundation flying in a place like this. Also going
to the dunes you know dune du Pyla, Portuguese coast,
anywhere you've got nice dunes and you can just mess around any nice
big grassy fields grassy training slopes that's really what I'd recommend in
your first couple of years of flying just so that you really build a strong
foundation and then when you go to the like really scary tricky postage-stamp
rocky scree slope cliff launches you've built all of those skills already, you're
not trying to still learn stuff in that environment.
So I hope you've learned something about how I kind of analyze a site and decide
in my mind whether it's safe or not so just to go to summarize again there:
first thing you're looking at is your launch area, you're looking for hazards
around the launch area and you want to try and position yourself as far away
from the hazards as possible without compromising your launch, you want to go
over the back look at your escape route analyze how safe it is and are there any
better places to track towards to get away if you get blown over,
check out the slope dynamics the angles of the slope and where the wind is going
to create turbulence and check out your landing field make sure you've checked
out the hazards before you fly for the first time from the top.
The quality of the escape route affects my decision on what kind of
conditions I'm going to fly if I'm flying at Devil's Dyke I know I can
handle quite a lot of wind particularly if it's off to the one angle that's
going to push me into that safe channel. Also if the wind is off to the west I
can see there's going to be an area where you're gonna get turbulence you're
goind to expect it, so when you fly in there you're kind of ready for it or you're giving
yourself more clearance off the slope so really just by looking at the shape
of the land you can work out a flight plan that'll keep you in the safest air
and give you a good day's flying. I hope that helped you prepare for your next
paragliding flight how to analyze the site and keep yourself safe. If you like
what we do and you'd like to get behind the channel pop over to patreon / flybubble
we'd really appreciate you joining there and supporting the channel
it'll be great otherwise I'll see you in the next episode. Cheers!