Oh you lucky man 👍

Fantastic video sir, I will be doing this for my birthday in August

And if all goes according to plan I will be flying that Spitfire on May 4th. I’m very much looking forward to it and have always loved the Spitfire. Hopefully the weather cooperates - we are travelling from the West cost of Canada so it’s a long hike. Thanks for the video….and ps my classic car is not a Spitfire, it’s a Mustang, 1966 convertible.

Wholesome

An interesting set of stories! I too loved flying at Rhossili in the seventies, though it went out of favour once XC flying in thermals caught on. Best wishes!

22:32 'when P/G had taken over from hangliding'? You don't see many P/Gs down here in the Southern Club.

Remember the 'Poison Butterfly' headline in the Sun??

Down there in the heratige hanger what an excellent experience last month some set up and staff are the bizz can’t wait to go up ⬆️

Have never done RC sailing, watching the video brings back memories when I used to race 16 foot Mosquito Cats here in Australia. This has whetted my apatite to try this in the future. Thanks for the video and commentary.

It is always fun in IOM class with RC sailboats, keep it up! ;)

Fantastic video photography 😁 Nice video 👍

Hi Phil Met you on Ivinghoe Beacon today and helped with some wobbly camera work. Channel looks great Paul

I’m doing this for my 55th birthday. Thanks for posting this

9:00 Na! I'm sure that was a Heinkel 111

I flew the Spitfire with Classic Wings earlier this year, was one of the most amazing things I've ever done. Lots of barrel rolls and dives, that's the big one ticked off my bucket list.

Great vid, very well explained! Wish I was in your area to join up!!!

Nice and interesting video! I have found a minor detail. On 10:20 you can hear that the end point of the winch is set slightly too far. The servo is pushing against something and that could possibly damage it. Thanks and good luck with the club!

Some very good info for a new sailor. Thanks for the help.

Thank you so much. I live in Poole and tomorrow morning I will visit Poole Park and hopefully I will be able to see some action. I like the 1 metres class a lot but the 8 metres is great too. I watched several videos of the dragonflite 95......looks a great boat. I like the fact that the races are very competitive and require lots of skill and good setup. Looking forward to it.

It must be extremely emotional flying in a Spitfire. Thinking of all those young men who were killed in the Battle of Britain fighting to give us the freedom we enjoy today.... and hearing the testimony of so many of the veteran RAF pilots of that time who all unanimously agree: "Without the Spitfire, we could not have won the Battle of Britain".

Really enjoyable and interesting Phill, thank you. Makes me wish I lived in you're area.

At least you weren't being shot at.

Lovely talk about such a storied HG career. Amazing parallels to my continuous 49 year NEW England HG and still loving it.

I cannot understand why the damned British think the spitfire was the greatest plane ever built! It wasn't! In WWII the greatest plane was the P 51 Mustang! And every time I watch a video like this makes me SCREAM!

P.S. Thank you Heritage Hangar for what you do. A service that's unequal providing the fortunate ones to fly such a beautiful craft.

Wow! That would be a life time achievement to fly one of these great machines. One can only imagine. Thank you for sharing your achievement. Outstanding.

I had a Hiway Cloudbase with a friend in late 1978..

I had a similar experience in 1971 - 1972. I remember seeing TV footage of Jeff Jobe(SP?) Flying a Hang Glider around Snowbird Utah, launching with his skis on. I was immediately memorized and purchased a book on hang gliding. That year I left for Michigan Technical University, located in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. The University owned a ski hill, so it was an easy choice for me. This area of Michigan, “The Copper Country, is a very hilly area with elevations as high as 800 feet above lake Superior. The Aero-Space club was being forced to move from a building that was being torn down. Someone had built a Bamboo Butterfly the year before, and they gave it to me as a club member knew of my interest in Hang Gliding. Two friends and I took about five flights each at the bottom of the ski hill. It was hilarious as the carpet taped plastic and bamboo flapped like a bird as one ran down the hill to launch. We hung from our armpits from parallel bars made from bamboo. Every landing was a semi-controlled crash. A few years later, in 1976, I was teaching skiing in Utah and visited the now-famous “Point of the Mountian” between Salt Lake Valley and Utah Valley. I purchased a Manta hang glider (not the Fledge) with 18-foot leading edges and improved handling, a 17-foot keel tube. 😊 I started with a prone harness with no instruction but quickly took to it. Within a day, I worked myself to the top of the 600-foot South Side. I had great landings and quickly learned 180-degree turns to extend my time in the mild lift. I did this for many weeks and then moved up to the 2,000 foot high North Side. One afternoon I launched from the top and was having a pleasant flight maintaining altitude as I ridge soared about even with the launch. Suddenly the glider pitched hard nose up, forcing me into a stall. As I tried to penetrate what appeared to be a wall of lift, the glider refused to speed up or even move forward. I had the control bar down by my knees, but the glider was like a leaf. The glider started to fall off and rotate towards the mountain, so I eased the control bar back to neutral and started to bane with the rotation. When I was rotated facing the mountain, the glider violently pitched nose down to vertical in a full luff dive. I pushed the control bar out in front of me, but I became a human lawn dart with the glider in a luff dive. I came in from about 85 feet and walked away with a broken arm and broken glider. The people at the ridge base told me a dust devil came through and ran right up the ridge into my path. The dust had decreased as it hit the mountain, so it was an invisible wall of lift to me. I must have penetrated it, thus the rotation and then the “going over the falls” effect of lift only on the tale of that 17-foot keel and sail. I flew a few months after that, but then life took over with a great marriage (now 43 years with five great kids and eight grandchildren. In the 1980’s I got my glider rating and purchased a sailplane. I had many great Saturdays with numerous flights of 6 hours +. Nothing is like a hang glider. I have been looking at the Goat Glider, thinking that it is an excellent combination for my 66-year-old legs that do run so fast. Great story and videos! Thanks for posting.

Interesting. I am not sure this would draw in new members. Very complicated race course and details. Hope you have some fun. Alex

Yep, that’s what it’s like and maybe not always so polite! Especially in the one metre class!

If I'm honest, my dream is to be stranded on a desert island with Kylie Minogue...

ooooh an "airliner"...showing your age:):)

so NOISY....

What an excellent video about racing RC sailboats. I am going to return to this hobby after quitting in 1975. Your video sharpened me up RC sailing. Thanks.

God, such a beautiful plane. I’m 12 and it’s my dream to fly in a Spitfire, actually flying one myself if only for a second would be heaven on Earth. Do you think that’ll ever happen?

my fav plane

Superb commentary thank you. Really interesting!

Yes, hang gliding is magical. Any other flying always felt like "taking a shower with a raincoat on" after flying them.

Nobody has called me beautiful before! 😂😂

Excellent info! I'm flying end of the month! So excited!

Remember Bayko well Phill and those metal rods. Oooh, health and safety!

How lovely. Keep going Phil.

Nice one Phill! 🥳👍

Thanks for that - enjoyed this immensely. Great seeing the old Hang Gliders. Just got back into Hang Gliding myself( started in 80-81) - and I am surprised at how the much technology has changed. When I started carbon was only found in pencils - now they make Hang Gliders of it. Carbon that is ...not pencils...LOL!

Interesting to hear about hang gliding in the early days. I Hope you will have a nice trip to Kitty Hawk soon!

You are quite the James Bond Phil!!!!

The answer to mankind's age old dream of flying like a bird had become reality back then!! We, those of us (like you) who dreamed of flying like a bird, were SO lucky to be alive (and young) when that dream came true. I feel like we were the luckiest people in the world!! Thanks for sharing your story, pictures and experiences. BTW, you would have fit right in with the California hang gliding scene and still would. There's a bunch of silver-haired pilots from the '70s still flying. Check out some of my old '70 videos on my KZfaq channel - 'H5-Phil'.

Dorset & Somerset Air Ambulance if that counts! 😄👍 www.dsairambulance.org.uk/

Glad you liked it Tom. Look out for more videos on the way soon.

Very interesting, Phill