Andrew Craig
@andrewcraig
Co-editor of Head In The Clouds: The Best Stories From 50 Years of Free Flying. Get it from xcmag.com or your local bookshop. Paraglider pilot, cyclist. Krypton Factor champion 1992, twice Mastermind semifinalist, winner on The Chase. Former BBC journalist
A tranquil riverbank scene. 20 minutes earlier I had been wrestling with the remains of a dust devil at a thousand feet. Didn't dare leave the climb until 2,500, but then flew to the lush Test valley in search of calmer air and landed there. The rest of Hampshire looks like the Serengeti.
Flew 74km from Combe Gibbet to Goodwood. The ITV cameras covering the racing caught my landing approach!
My first flight from Sugar Hill - 37km over Wantage and Abingdon. The Vale of White Horse looks like the Serengeti.
Got to 7000 feet on the way to the Brecon Beacons. Didn't fancy crossing a big expanse of moor with no roads, so landed by a bus stop - and Adele's burger van!
Stupidest thing I did: bought a new strap for my watch and a special tool to fit it. This was the result of my handiwork.
Preposterous conditions in the ground, preposterous conditions in the air. Got to my highest altitude in Britain, 6750 feet. 55 km from Martinsell on the Marlborough Downs to somewhere in Gloucestershire.
On his first reference to it being spring-loaded, I thought maybe he's referring to the cocking mechanism, but no: @alanallport.bsky.social @lmbd1418.bsky.social
Today I completed one thousand hours of paragliding. It's taken me a while! 26 years. One reserve deployment. One broken ankle. Two 100km flights. Thank you all for keeping me company!
First day flying at Kössen - two hours in the air, and a nice little triangle. Hot on the ground!
We've been allowed to get off for some fresh air. A new engine is on the way.
Amsterdam-Munich OBB Nightjet sleeper. Seems comfortable. 27 minutes late, and staff a bit clueless about where to find our carriage, but all sorted.
The journey begins: 20 miles to Swindon station as there are no trains from Pewsey today. Dunkirk tomorrow.
Flew to Avebury for the fourth time in ten days, this time with Helen Barnes.
An hour of lovely cruising around the Vale of Pewsey, and then a landing inside the Avebury henge, to a round of cheers from the assorted hippies, druids and new agers celebrating Beltane.
Reading Stay Alive, the biography of Stuart Adamson. Some desperately sad parts, but some funny quotes from Bruce Watson. This is just after he and Stuart - by then an established rock star - had been joined in Big Country by Tony Butler and Mark Brzezicki, who were sought-after session men:
Getting low over Herefordshire yesterday. Flew 44 km from Malvern to deepest marches.
The sky upwind from my landing field... and downwind. The initial climb nearly blew my socks off, but eventually it clouded over as forecast. 43 km from Malvern to Newton St Margaret's.
If you see this, post something orange from your gallery. Yes, he's Dutch!
Yes, I did land my paraglider here, but there was no need to put up rude signs about me.