On Friday 11th April 2003 I had to do a couple of hours work at a company on the Isle of Wight. The forecast was fair so I drove down early in the morning from London to Beaulieu airfield which is disused apart from a small square of tarmac which is used by model aircraft flyers.

After asking if the model flyers already at the airfield minded me taking off I setup for a forward launch as there was only a breath of wind. I was quite loaded up with a reserve, automatic life jacket, chart, GPS, EPIRB, a babies bottle of oil etc. The wing came up just right first time and I didn't’t switch off the motor in the process with the A riser which is quite rare for me. After quite a run I was off.

The weather was a bit cloudy and there was mist over the Solent and Isle of Wight but when I got to the mouth of the Beaulieu river I could just see the Island so I went down to 1000 feet and went under the cloud. They say that aircraft engines always run rough over water. And sure enough I am sure it missed a beat about halfway across. I was going against the wind and having to dodge dark clouds so it wasn't a direct route. The water crossing which wasn't’t long was the best part of the trip it took 54 minutes in all and I landed in a field just north of Newport. I had problems landing because under the clouds I got lots of lift. I had the engine on tick over and was still going up quite quickly. I am the worlds worst free flyer but try as hard as I could I kept finding lift, typical because I wanted to get down. After lots of tight turns trying to lose height I finally got out of the lift and landed.

I phoned a friend who picked me up in his van and dropped me of at the company were I spent a couple of hours carrying out the work. I walked back to my friends shop and he gave me a lift back to the field after stopping at a garage to fill the tank with a few liters of petrol. The wind had picked up by now but the mist had gone and the clouds were a lot higher.

I reverse launched and after a few steps was off. I climbed into wind then turned for Beaulieu with the wind right behind I made great time with a much clearer crossing of the Solent. I was able to see across to Swanage the whole Island including the needles, Southampton water and across to Portsmouth. A few sailing yachts were out and I got a great view of them tacking into wind across the Solent.

Upon arrival at Beaulieu there were quite a few model airplane flyers at the airfield so I over flew and checked that no one was flying then turned into wind and landed close to my car. 23 minutes the return flight took, far to quick. After speaking to the very friendly model flyers I packed up and set off for home.

Why am I writing this about this flight? It wasn’t very far, quite short in fact. And free flyers before let alone Paramotors have flown the Solent. The take offs and landing were all right but nothing special. The reason is this is what Paramotoring is all about to me just the privilege of being up there flying with the best view in the world and having fun. I am still amazed more people aren’t Paramotoring it’s the cheapest powered flight I know of and really great fun.

Below is a picture of my tracks the wiggliest one is the outward track dodging the clouds well that’s my excuse anyway and the straightest one the return. The thin blue one is a point to point line I suppose one day I might be able to fly a track like that but I doubt it.

CompeGPS - projects tracks, waypoints and routes onto 2D or 3D maps.

Kevin Challis
kev@challishouse.fsnet.co.uk

MOTOR: Walkerjet Superhawk (solo 210).
WING: Hathor Symphony (XL).