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 Palace Pier.
Looking East.
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Page 3 Flight over Brighton pier and the beachfront It was blowing a light easterly today so I headed back to the Ditchling field which takes north through to east/s.east. There was a police helicopter showing an interest in me as I was doing my final rigging checks. It moved away and I took off and started climbing. Just then they came back and began to circle me, luckily they were far enough away not to cause me a problem. I think they were just being nosy and they soon left me alone and I turned south towards the town and the beach. My track took me over the race course and down towards the marina. I was still climbing but couldn't really figure out just which bar position was the optimum for best climb rate. I was more comfortable with the foot throttle on this flight than I've been on previous flights. By the time I reached the beach I gave up trying to find the best bar position and just flew around at half throttle, enjoying the view of the coast from about 1,500 ft. above the beach. I headed out to sea a little and west towards the palace pier with the sun in my eyes. It was about 4pm by now and the sun was low in the sky. The beach was quite busy around the pier area as it was Sunday and a warm spring day. I snapped a few pictures (left) as I flew between the west pier and the palace pier. The west pier looks even more delapidated from up here than it does on the ground. The Palace Pier was full of people on the fair ground rides and enjoying the sun. My flight time was 1hr 05mins according to my vario. The straight line distance between the turn points was only around 11 miles although it was probably a few miles more than that in reality since I flew up and down between the piers a few times taking photographs, and I used about a litre and a third of fuel. I reckon I could have used less than that if I hadn't been messing around with the climb rate and pressing the throttle so hard at times. I'm sure that with more experience with the Wasp, I'll get better at minimising my fuel burn and maximising my distance. My highest height was 1,800 ft but I took off at 650 so my net gain was 1,150 ft. The landing was fine but the one thing I do notice is that the glide angle is greatly reduced when I switch the engine off and this has to be taken into account when I plan a landing approach. For this reason I'm not too keen on trying to land in small fields just yet. You have to rethink your approach with a power unit and not assume that you have the same glide angle as you have with just a standard hang gliding harness. You could land short if you are not careful. The other thing is that I've realised that it makes sense to land near your car as there is so much stuff to carry with a power unit as compared to a normal hg set-up. Landing out in the sticks could involve a big retreive. It was a nice flight, short but sweet and some good photos too. (click them for larger versions.) |
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