Soaring at Southerndown today? Hopefully!

Hi. My name is Clayton, and it has been 4 months and thirteen days since I last had a tipple at the fountain of slope-soaring.

I nearly failed in my abstinence about a month ago and was rewarded by tripping and nearly removing my foot at the ankle. Still can't walk properly, but am going to attempt to go soaring tomorrow at Southerndown. The forecast isn't inspiring, but I'm hoping the rain will stay away long enough for me to get some flights and video done.

On a family note, our new son, Adam was born on the 11/12/2011 at 0340hrs weighing in at 3.27kg. Clare and Adam are doing very very well. Here's a quick photo from his birthday:

Light wind relaxation on Rhossili

I decided to make the most of my last free day of my annual leave this past Friday and took the Wasabi and Gentle Lady to Rhossili for a nice session with Andy and Roger.

Was a nice relaxing morning that got very crowded with 30 paragliders showing up to make the most of a really nice day. Most of the paragliders were really pleasant and gave us some space after we moved to an area of the slope requested by the club Secretary. As so often happens, there were two paragliders that disregarded their own safety and decided to fly directly through the tiny area of sky we had been allocated to use, without giving us any warning. I nearly accidentally hit them both on separate occasions, and my polite requests for some space were ignored with a smirk. Kind of put a dampener on my day and caused me to get a bit grumpy.

To add further to my frustrations, I misjudged where my plane was and managed to have a mid-air with Roger's Ocelot. No damage to the Wasabi and creased the leading edge on the Ocelot, Sorry Rog.

I didn't get any videos and only took a couple of Photos

Can't quit totally!

I managed to keep hold of my planes and will be using them now and then. I won't be committing to racing any more though as it was my competitive nature that was keeping me from my family, and I was wasting a LOT of time on forums, so will continue to refrain from posting on them.

I will be getting out for a sports fly when everything lines up and will continue to try to get videos and photos to share with you when I do.

Should have an opportunity to go flying at Rhossili on Friday. Roger should be maidening his Stingray!! And Andy should be maidening his Ascot!! Very exciting and even if I haven't fixed the Wasabi and Skorp by then, I will go along just to hang out.

Anyway, it feels good to have revised my 'knee-jerk' reaction.

More after Friday!

Thanks for reading.

Thank you to all the people that have taken an interest in reading the drivel that I write about my slope-soaring adventures.

Unfortunately, there will be no further slope-soaring adventures from me to write about and share with you from now on.

I had a revelation on Sunday while I was driving home after spending my Daughter's 3rd birthday fighting Mother Nature to try to complete an F3F event.

I am not giving my family the time, effort and attention that they need, want and Deserve.


Hopefully, when time and money permit, I will be able to get back out onto the slopes and enjoy the fantastic company, scenery and flying experiences again in the future.

Thanks again

Kind Regards

Clayton Landells

North of England Open F3F

Congrats to the top three placegetters in what was reported to be a very challenging two-day event with a total of 5 rounds being flown.


1 Dieter Perlick 3782.20
2 Espen Torp 3472.96
3 Joel West 3458.36


Hopefully there will be some detailed reports and photos somewhere soon.

North of England Open

Good luck to all the competitors taking part in the North of England Open this weekend at the Hole of Horcum.

Hope you have a great time, Looking forward to hearing about the action!!!

New perspective for a slopesoaring Vid

Scott Ravenscroft was having a play with his FPV copter at the Leek and Moorland club and uploaded this footage to youtube.

I really like it and think the potential for some awesome footage with different viewpoints of sloping is huge.

Enjoy!




Some info about the equipment used and the man behind the footage can be found here:
http://www.modelgliders.co.uk