Flying - the 12 Apostles

Epic flight along the 12 Apostles and back to Signals...

After a long spell of bad weather, there was finally a good NW'ster between storms. Got to Signal Hill at 12pm. It was raining, but it looked clear out to sea behind the squall. When it cleared, I could see blue sky out to sea. I rigged and launched at 1pm.

About to launch at Signals

Conditions were fabulous, and I climbed up to Lion's Head easily, circling over hikers on the top.

Minutes after launching... about 300ft above Signals, looking towards Lion's Head
and the 12 Apostles

Climbing up the face of Lion's Head

After boating around there a bit, I left Lions Head 500ft above (2600ft ASL) for Table Mountain.

Looking past Lion's Head towards the 12 Apostles

Above Lion's Head about to cross to Table Mountain

The crossing was uneventful, and I lost only 300ft on the way. Cloudbase was well below the cable station, so I headed along the 12 Apostles to Llandudno.

Nearing Llandudno along the Apostles. The furthest visible land is Kommetjie.

At Llandudno I thought about going over Hout Bay to Constantiaberg and along to Kommetjie, but decided against it as cloudbase was dropping and there was weather moving in from the sea. So I headed back along the Apostles, flying above the coastal road and losing almost no height getting to Camps Bay.

Flying back along the coastal road to Camps Bay

2500ft over Camps Bay beach

At Camps Bay, I dropped back to Table Mountain to gain height and then crossed back to Lions Head from there.

Flying towards Lion's Head from the Apostles

Back at Lion's Head, the air was incredible. Laminar, and the perfect windspeed. It was easy to fly 50ft over the hikers on Lions Head and then climb up 600 ft in front of the clouds and fly out over the sea with very little loss of height. For the next hour, I weaved in and out of clouds that came of the sea, flying through a couple and had an absolute blast!

Out in front of Lion's Head looking back down the range

Buzzing the hikers on Lion's Head (picture courtesy of my dad)

Ianni arrived and launched at about 4pm. He climbed up to join me and we flew together for an hour and a half. At one stage, we glided a whole "circuit" in formation, from Lions Head, straight out to Bantry Bay, the right along the sea front to Sea Point and to 3-Anchor Bay and then back to the ridge while staying within about 30m of each other. Complete jol.

Ianni and I flying "in formation"

Screen cap from a video of Ianni flying over Lion's Head

Eventually I flew out to Mouille Point, getting there at 2600ft ASL, and watched Ianni land.

Ianni (white speck over the ocean) setting up to land at Mouille Point

Losing height, I flew lazy circles over the ocean for a good 10 mins before finally touching down at 5:40pm for 4:40mins in the air! A fantastic flight.