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...

Wow, what a great Bash, the best for a few years I'd say. Lot's of flying on Saturday at Westbury and at Mere, then a superb evening the two two piece acoustic sets, followed by the main event, The Rock Pirates. Called in at the last minute to replace the booked band who had split up three days earlier, these four young (yes young, 17 / 18) put on a fantastic show. The marquee ROCKED! See some phots and listen to one of their tracks here!