Huw Griffiths: Big Cliff flying on the Isle of Wight

The white cliffs to the west of Freshwater Bay, taken from Compton Down.

This July I decided it would be nice to do a weekend camping trip on the Isle of Wight, and take a few planes to slope soar there at a few interesting sites like Compton Down and The Needles. My friend Mark was interested in coming along which made it the more fun and he took a some of these shots.

We took the Friday evening car ferry and arrived at Compton Farm camp site, pitched camp and cooked a fine evening meal, with wine, by head-torch before turning in for the night.

The weather was splendid the next morning as we walked up to the top of the bowl on the Down. A couple of para-gliders had already glided down to the coast from this spot and were soaring along the seafront. I had a pleasing flight from up here with the Multiplex EasyGlider and the view was as good as it gets.

The Needles and Scratchell's Bay

The next day the weather continued to be wonderful and the wind was blowing smoothly from the SW. It was a perfect day to launch a glider off the white cliffs further westwards at The Needles. Although I could have flown the Multiplex glider off these cliffs, it would have meant limiting soaring to above cliff top level and within a secure range to avoid the risk of a sea landing. For this reason I decided to fly the Parkzone Radian, which has power assistance, to bring it up from sea level if required.

As it turned out, I only used the power option once for about 5 seconds during a whole hour of soaring since the lift was so fantastic. The lift was also phenomenally smooth, coming off the sea, which made this flight the best flight to date in my flying history.

The Parkzone Radian, prior to launch.

Fitting of on-board HD camera after initial test-flight.

Launch!

The Radian does a fly-past.

After a great time at The Needles, we then worked our way along the south coast to discover other flying sites and found some more cliffs at Blackgang Chine. Here I let my Multiplex glider spread her wings, flying over dense woodland below.