As of 1st December 2011 ALL flights will require a supporting 3D trace.
We will NOT be accepting flight with turnpoint coordinates only.

Good reasons why...

1. The system will optomise your flight for you, and ensure you get the best distance.
2. No more faffing with co-ords
3. An airspace overlay is provided, (not auto checked..) so you can see if there are any possible issues.
4. You now have something that you can ask Santa to bring if you haven't allready got one

Regards
The UKNXCL team

OK, so this glider came out in 1997 and went out of production a few years later but there are a few round 2nd hand and they are still a great rigid wing hang glider.

Whilst you can't race with the latest Toplesses you can still out sink them in day to day flying and will have a much easier time when it comes to landing. Of course there are disadvantages, mainly the weight and difficulty of transporting more than one or two at a time being the main ones.

The review  was written by me back in 1997 and I've hardly flown a flex wing since, so I am a bit biased ;-)

Hello All,

You may or may not have realised by now that I am a BOF (Boring Old Flyer) that goes on and on about the good old days, especially in the Peak District and especially in the 70s and 80s.

So much so that I am trying to collect stories and photos of those times before it is too late - "death where is thy sting" etc.

To that end I have started a blog which may or may not prove amusing? or of interest.  Please feel free to have a look, you can find it at 

johnclarkeflyingadventures.wordpress.com

Bye for now.

For those that may be interested..

Reading  this note tells us that the existing UKNXCL is coming to a close on the 15th of November.

Not wanting to see nearly 20 years of flights disapear, and not sure whether others are doing anything about it, i thought it might be an idea if i could do something about it.
Fortunately my son Robert has been forced to stop playing bloody Xbox and learn a bit of programming. and come up with a prog that sorts the tables out.

Its still in its early days, and there are bound to be problems, but at least its a start...

For more info go here :-

What amazing luck with the weather, one week since my first day with Flylight and I'm returning to complete my aerotow endorsement. As per last week Will and I met up in the Aviator Hotel for breakfast after which we headed over to meet Cathy and Stewart from Flylight.

Our first flights were solos on the school's Target 16 then, depending on how that went, we'd be converted to trolley launching our own gliders. Although a week had passed since my last aerotow flights, flying the Target felt very familiar. The launch and tow went well and as Stewart had instructed me to land by the hanger if I was happy, that's where my first flight of the day concluded. I was now ready to switch to my own glider.

Back at the hanger Will and I fetched our own gliders and moved them out to the launch area. I'd be using my Koch release, so fitted it to my harness. For my first flight I'd also have a fin fitted to the keel to help whilst on tow.

After Will's first successful tow my glider was placed on the launch trolley where I clipped in and held onto the trolley's strings (this would keep the glider on the trolley during the initial launch moments). When the tug was ready and the slack taken up the launch began.

Compared to the flying the Target, towed with a tow leg set-up, towing from my chest release on my Sting proved to be more of a challenge. My glider climbed more than I had expected and with the base bar pulled well back I was barely able to maintain a similar altitude with the tug. As the tug climbed and I dropped to the tug's altitude some slack developed in the towline. Easing the bar out slowly I tried to reduce the tension fearing a weak link going. I seemed to get away with it then either the weak link failed or my chest release released the line (no input on my part). Fortunately I was sufficiently high to quickly turn the glider around and glide back to launch to safely touch down.

As I'd failed to get a complete tow in, I was put back on the trolley for a second attempt. Fortunately it went to plan (no weak link or premature releases). Cathy towed me to cloud base where she waved me off. My vario was reading 1,800 feet and with clouds around me, I had a very enjoyable glide back down to the airfield where I happily landed in nil winds next to launch.

My next launch went even smoother than my first, probably a result of the trolley launches becoming increasingly familiar. The sun was low in the sky so following the tug was a bit more of a challenge, but when reaching 1,500 feet above takeoff, Cathy waved me off and I enjoyed the remaining glide back to the airfield.

My next tow started off really well but just as we left the airfield boundary my bloody chest release released the towline for a second time. The airfield was also expecting an inbound flight so I quickly turned my glider around, flew across the airfield and landed. About 5 minutes after I landed, the inbound flight landed on the runway I'd just crossed.

Will had also experienced problems with his chest release system so swapped it for one of Flylight's releases. Will's next flight was his mile high tow. Stewart and I watched as Cathy towed Will through a hole in the clouds and continued upwards. We quickly lost site of them as there was quite a bit of cloud cover. Eventually Cathy returned and we briefly saw Will very high above the clouds, but that glimpse would be the last we'd see of Will for quite some time!

On my next flight I decided to do ditch my koch tow release and use the Flylight system. Back on the trolley I was ready to go. After asking for all out the tug started accelerating and I slowly started rolling forwards, suddenly there was a bang and I saw the towline shoot off into the distance. As the trolley came to rest I assumed the weak link had failed, but upon looking down I realised that the release webbing on the release system had snapped. Stewart apologised as he hadn't pushed the trolley and assumed this contributed to the problem. Later we discovered there was a fault with webbing on that particular release. I wasn't having that much luck!

Sadly this meant switching back to my own chest release system that was causing me so many problems earlier. This was to be my high tow and I was desperate to get up there but sadly the koch chest release would put an end to that! As before, shortly after launch the towline was released. I'm pretty sure I swore out loud before swinging the glider around to land near the hanger. With the sun low in the sky and Will still missing I decided that was it for me today.

By the end of the day I was a little frustrated that I didn't get to do the mile high tow (static winch chest releases not being so suitable for aerotowing) but as Stewart had said, I'd coped well with pretty much every eventuality that could happen and signed me off for the aerotow endorsement.

As for Will, despite trying to get hold of him on his phone without success he eventually showed up on foot at the hanger. During his mile high flight he'd got disorientated whilst above the clouds. When he did find a hole in the clouds, he couldn't find the airfield so landed at a nearby village where someone was kind enough to give him a lift back to the airfield.

My alarm sounded at 5.30 am, I was certainly suffering from sleep depravation, a result of a long weekend doing the BHPA club coach course and the commuting and early starts that accompanied it. Outside a heavy dew coated my glider bag that was resting on my car roof and to the east, the first hints of the approaching dawn broke the darkness of night.

Two hours later, with the worst of the M25 and M1 behind me, I arrived at Sywell Aerodrome. Will, a fellow winch pilot from the Suffolk Club, had already arrived and sourced a fried breakfast in the Aviator Hotel. It didn't take much convincing for me to join him. After breakfast we were airside with Stewart Bond from Flylight. After introductions, we were sat down in the 'classroom' and thoroughly briefed on the Aerotow environment. After paperwork was completed we moved to the airfield. Our first flights would be Tandem flights on an Aeros Target 21 that had been equipped with wheels for ease of launching and landing.

It was a strange sensation, not only taking off with my chin merely inches from the ground, but also having a body to the right of me! Stewart, the body to the right of me, would be piloting during launch then shortly afterwards would instruct me to take control using the words "You have control". Will, operating the radio was relaying instructions between the glider and the tug. After all checks had been completed and appropriate instructions given we were rolling across the airfield being towed by the microlight.

I was instructed to hold the control bar but not apply any control inputs. This would allow me to feel the range of control inputs being applied by Stewart so I would know what to expect when taking control. After a safe height was achieved Stewart instructed, "You have control" to which I replied, "I have control". I was now flying the Tandem.

I was amazed at the level of concentration required on my part to fly in close formation with the tug. Initially I pitched up, down, rolled left and right but eventually settled into the rough optimum position behind the tug. This was much harder to do than I realised. A couple of times Stewart assisted with some of my inputs (flying the Tandem required a bit of muscle, especially when it's getting out of shape!). But after a few minutes of this I started to suss it and relaxed which greatly helped!

Upon reaching 3,000 feet QFE (3,000 feet above the airfield) the tug pilot waves us off and after checking airspace I look down and operate the release lever. The looking down is to ensure that if the towline recoils, it hits the top of our helmets and not our faces – pretty sensible stuff.

It's quite a novelty having an instructor by my side as we slowly descend. After some gentle boating around, Stewart asks, "is there something you want to try?". I was quite keen to have someone analyse my 360 degree turns so that's what we did. No problems there!

Still with plenty of height, Stewart suggests we do some stalls. Excellent I think, this is something I've not really done before, so what better time to try it? As I pushed the bar of the Tandem Target outwards things got quieter, but no stall. Pushing as far as I could, eventually the glider started to fill very mushy, then, very gently, the glider dipped slightly to the right followed by the nose gently dropping. This was the start of the stall to which I gently pulled the bar in to allow the glider to recover to trimmed flight.

I couldn't believe how much fun this was and when Stewart suggested that we were still high enough to do another, that's what I did. The second time, Stewart told me how interesting it was to watch how the sail ripples as the stall develops. Something that I thought was really interesting, but didn't actually see as I was deeply concentrating on looking ahead!

Of course, all this was happening in an active ATZ. Beneath us are active runways and Monday's are the quiet days, but as I looked down I could see aircraft landing and departing. Focussed on piloting the Target to the landing spot and under the guidance of Stewart, I used the constant aspect approach and gently landed very close to our chosen launch point. I will admit to having a huge grin across my face at this point!

After debrief and a further flight by Will I was ready for my second dual flight. This time I would be flying the glider from launch through to landing. As before, I gave instructions to Will who relayed them via radio to the tug pilot. Takeoff again felt very fast and the Tandem quickly climbed above the tug. I pulled the bar in to cease the climb until eventually the tug lifted off. At around 100 feet above the ground, the tug was in position and I concentrated keeping the Tandem correctly orientated behind it. After several minutes into the flight the Tandem began turning further to the left than it should have and Stewart brought the glider back on course as we were approaching a lock-out position. After that 'blip', I was able to relax and comfortably fly the glider until signalled to release.

During the slow descent back to ground I experimented with some tighter turns. After two 360's and probably me saying something like "That was a tighter turn", Stewart responded with the words 'No, this is a tight turn' and with that threw the glider into a 60 degree banked turn and pushed out. The glider quickly rotated and everything was spinning very quickly! For the first time I really felt some significant G's being exerted on my body, a strangely fun sensation, but it got me thinking that the 200 kg load the glider was carrying had now increased to a 400 kg load! Hmmm! Perhaps that's why Stewart had asked if I had a parachute in my harness earlier?

After those moments of fun I was back in control and setting up my landing approach. Stewart asked if I wanted a further Tandem flight (I'd been warned earlier that there's an extra charge for these), to which I decided one more would probably be a good thing. Soloing the Target 16 was next on the agenda and another consistent takeoff and tow would satisfy myself I was ready for it.

After my third and final flight on the Tandem both Stewart and myself were satisfied that I was ready to solo. It was now time to meet an old friend, the Target 16. Like the Tandem, the Target 16 was also equipped with a full set of wheels. All launches and landings would be on wheels, a pretty good way to reduce the risk of damage to the gliders!

Compared to flying the Tandem, my first solo aerotow on the Target was much easier. Although my launch was in a slight cross wind I coped with it well. During the initial moments of the flight I developed some minor pitch oscillation with the tug but when I realised what was happening I relaxed more and stopped the 'over' corrections.

The conditions were perfect. Below in the airfield, a Virgin hot air balloon was being inflated. Next to it, were some very excited passengers, no doubt paying a premium fee for the experience, but I couldn’t help thinking to myself I was getting a better deal! In the sky and slightly upwind of my current position was another hot air balloon. I had always wanted to fly with balloons and today I'd achieved that ambition.

As I neared the ground I noticed that the Virgin balloon was acting like a huge windsock. Using this as a reference, I executed a large left hand circuit, again using the constant aspect approach taking me over the Sywell hangers and perimeter road where I lined up for my final and perfectly touched down just inside the airfield perimeter.

It was now getting late but there was time for one final solo. Stewart asked me to land the Target near the hanger (that would save hauling it back later). The flight went perfectly and I thoroughly enjoyed boating around above the airfield until it was time to land.

Back at the Flylight hanger Stewart and Cathy congratulated Will and myself on a successful day. Cathy even commented that it was very normal when flying the tug to look into the mirror and see the hang glider all over the sky, but today she had been surprised that we both kept the glider perfectly behind the tug (it must have been a result of all that static winching I thought!).

Well that concluded the day, although we didn't complete the endorsement, Will and I had learned a lot and had a fantastic time. We would have to return soon to complete the course, so it was now a matter of waiting for suitable weather again, preferably on a Monday (the airfield's quietest day).

Firstly I forgot my camera goddammit!! There is usually one major thing I forget so at least it was only the camera (well that and fogetting to tether one of Stewarts Glider but that's another story).

So, on to the training... Put in another couple of flights and on the second flight I did the take-off too. Had much better control and generally feel like the 'picture' is finally coming together.

Really look forward to teh next time I can get up there and even more looking forward to getting solo, and moving onto my own glider. I think the chance to have 3000ft of smooth air to play with is really gonna help my overall control and feel and help me push a few boundaries I think!

Had my first couple of flights on the tandem Aerotow with Stewart at Flylight.

My first flight was pretty much all over the place. Most tricky thing I've done so far I think as it was counter intuitive in that you had to ignore how the glider was flying in relation to the background, as well as pushing out when you're too low behind the tug.

My second flight was far better and I began focusing on the tug and trying to make sure I was in position behind it. Still pretty tricky and requires 100% concentration but I think I did far better and scared Stewart less so he was pretty happy too.

I'll be up in the air again tonight so hopefully I'll get further along and perhaps even go solo which would be pretty awesome.

It was actually pretty good having someone in the air on the way down to show me through some things I think it'd have taken me quite a while to figure out on my own. Spiral dive recover was 'interesting. Was also good to learn a bit about how to turn a bit more efficiently than I was at high bank angles - although I'd been told about pushing out a little it was good to have some there to point me in the right direction. I think my approach in large fields also has something to be desired so was good having a bit of imput on that too.

I'll be flying again tonight and will take my camera up so will hopefully have some footage.

Finally managed to get round to finishing off the results and stuff. Full details can be found here