My uncle was the winch man at the Gliding Club on the top of the Long Mynd. (shropshire gliding club) for many yeras but retired last year.
Now that's a hill and a half Simon. I had a terrific hang glider flight off there in a Griffon, got so much height and it was so smooth that I took my hands off for long enough to see what it did... let it slide into a spiral dive - terrific machine, but could bite (and did a few months later)
I also remember clearly picking up thermals from those farms, several thousand feet below, and actually smelling the farmyard smell and seeing a few stalks of wheat fly by... Had a bad reputation for curlover on landing, which could dump you quite badly, sure it was responsible for a few clavicles if not much worse, in the wrong direction
We also helped launch a sailplane that day, not from a winch or aero, but using the time-honoured 'bungee' launch method... you have to see it to believe it
Bungee launch at the Long Mynd, bungee runners just out of shot, duh!
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/c ... launch.JPG
