Yesterday a mate I flew our Paramotors to a pub in the English countryside for a pint of beer. It's been something I have been planning for about a year now, and we finally pulled it off.
A lot of things had to come together to make this adventure feasible.
The wind direction had to be from the North, also we needed to do it before Spring/Summer as we dont want the thermic activity that picks up inland with all the surrounding hills and bowls. If we did this in the Summer, we would have to fly very early in the morning, and the pub wouldn't be open...
So, Winter it is! As we were able to fly late morning and get to the pub for midday, without too many thermals about. Although with that said, it was a very bumpy ride back home, as the sun was out, and we had wind convergence (the meeting of two air masses moving in opposite directions, creating a boundary where air is forced upwards, resulting in lift and dynamic flying conditions).
We also had mist in the morning, blanket mist all over. We drove to the landing site where the pub is before flying there, to make sure we were both happy with the plan, and the entire area was covered in mist.
Here is what it looked like driving to the pub before flying:
We knew it would burn through, but we had to leave enough time before flying there. It started to burn off as we were putting up a wind sock at the pub, but it was still there at low level.
So now we had the wind sock up at the pub, we drove back to our launch site. Checking the windsock here, we had a perfect light wind from the North, so we were ready to launch!
It was around 20mins flight time until we reached the pub. We flew past the famous Arundel Castle, West Sussex along the way. We flew over for a closer look on the way back. The flight was as easy as following the River Arun most of the way (second fastest flowing river in the UK), known for its large Bass.
Approaching our runway, which favours a Northerly wind, but we actually had nil wind, so we came in hotter than expected, and I made a last minute decision to make a small left hand turn to land North West, on to a cricket ground. I did this as I felt there was a small chance of me over shooting, so this allowed me to wash off some height. I had walked this area previously and always had it in my mind as a Plan B landing area.
Beautiful landing on the cricket ground, and my buddy Jake landing on the other side of the fence.
We gave a quick nod to the grounds keeper who allowed us to land here and launch again, (on the basis that we dont hang around in the air for too long) thank you again!!
We gather our wings up nice and quick, then make our way to the pub, only 150 metres away :-)
The pub staff were very eager to learn more about the Paramotors we flew in on, they loved the idea, so maybe we can persuade the grounds keeper to let us land again? haha
I was a little disappointed that they dont do their home made Pork scratchings anymore, but a nice cold Pint was nothing to turn my nose up to!
Cheers!
Pint's done, now time to return back home before the thermals begin to appear and/or the wind changes direction.
With that said, the wind did change direction, and kicked up a little more than was forecast. It took us both 2 attempts to get into the air as the wind was mid changing direction.
We got in the air, then swung by the Castle on the way back, but not for long as it started to get uncomfortably bumpy.
Experiencing a lot of turbulence here, I tried staying over the river, but it made little difference.
The wind direction had changed also at our launch site, it was the opposite of where we just took off at the pub. All good though, mission complete!
Would be interested to know if we are the first to do this? Please comment down below if anyone knows of other paramotor pilots that may have flown to the pub for a pint of beer!
Thanks for reading!