Some of you may know my old instructor Dave Ward-Smith, others may know the name. He moved from Swansea to France then to NZ where he's been for a number of years. Anyway, back in October last year he had a really bad accident whilst tandeming (see paraglidingforum thread here). Anyway, he's made an almost complete recovery and a few weeks a go I found out he was making a trip over to the UK. Well, a few phone calls / emails later and a whole bunch of the people I flew with in my early days met up at the cafe at Swansea Airport (where Parapente Wales were based back in the late 80's / early 90's) for breakfast with Dave and our other instructor Rob Stimpson. Dave, Rob, Jamie (as in Jamie & Karen), John Nash, Nick Roberts, Dan Ashworth, Trevor Clapp, Lawrence Ying, (Foreign Office) Phil (+ small baby) and a few others turned up! Very wierd, it was like going back 16 or 17 years!

After much catching up we headed in the traditional convoy to Nant-y-Moel where we were treated to a marvellous days flying - thermals up to 2,200' ato (3,800' asl) and hours of beautiful flying. What a great end to the lovely Indian summer we've had, and what a great way to catch up with old friends... Without a doubt my best days flying in the UK this year! Have a look at some photos here...