The unsettled July weather has had a big impact on flying, with very little activity for hang glider and paraglider pilots from the Petersfield-based Sky Surfing Club.

National competitions have been badly affected, as some of the club’s members found when they took part in the second stage of the British Open Series hang gliding event.

Justin Needham and Grant Crossingham entered the Class One (flexwing) category, Neil Atkinson and Tim King took part in the Class Five (rigid wing) category while Maciej Wolaniecki and Jose Pinto teamed up for the Sports Class.

Mid-Wales was the location for the five-day event, but poor conditions restricted proceedings to just a single scoring task from the impressive Long Mynd site in Shropshire.

Despite the grey skies and weak thermals, Atkinson flew the winning distance of 29km to take the Class Five gold.

“I just managed to win by going slightly more downwind than everyone else,” he said. “The terrain was very uninviting, so I headed back to a nice long into-wind field. However, it had the disadvantage of having been freshly sprayed with slurry the day before – much to the farmers’ amusement!”

King placed fifth in Class Five, while in Class One Crossingham placed second and Needham sixth. In the Sports Class Pinto placed fourth with Wolaniecki taking gold.

Wolaniecki said: “When we found too much wind inland for the competition a bunch of us decided to go to a beautiful place on the Gower Peninsula of south-west Wales called Rhossili. Flying there was a joy – smooth air, more sunshine than inland and the smell of the ocean. This is how summer vacations should be.”

Brian Parkins