On Monday 4th September Tom and I travelled up to Airways Airsports in Derbyshire to learn how to paraglide off a winch rather than the hill flying we have been doing up until now. Having set off from London at 6am we arrived at Darley Moor airfield at 9am. The weather was perfect and after a short winch briefing we were able to get straight into the air. The first tow was low and gentle and after that we were towed a few hundred feet up.

By lunchtime we had completed five flights but after that the wind changed direction and the winch had to be moved. The new layout meant a much lower tow so we had to call it a day. We saw the weather was good for the following day so we stayed up in Derbyshire but woke to low cloud and gusty winds. Sadly it didn’t improve but we will be back. The winch itself is worth a mention, despite looking like a Heath Robinson contraption it is in fact a state of the art Koch winch tastefully modified with galvanised roofing material and an old parasol. It does the trick however, and after another five tow flights under instruction, it will be able to tow us up a thousand feet up.