Club History - the eighties

An early paraglider (and an image with early resolution)

1980 began in spectacular fashion. In temperatures well below zero and with strobe lights fitted, four pilots took off from Skiddaw a few minutes before midnight on the 31st December. A full moon and calm conditions enabled them to achieve the dream of flying from one decade to the next.

In May the British League held a meet on Wolf Crag and the XC potential was demonstrated when Bob Calvert flew 30 miles to Grange over Sands. Many local XC flights were made and Tony Rathbone gained the XC Trophy with an 18 mile flight through the mountains to Ambleside.

Many of the second generation members began to take up the running of the Club. After six years in office the founder members were beginning to slip away. Mainstays for the next couple of years were Steve Barringer, Steve Pritchard, Dave Foremen, the McPhee twins and the evergreen Jim Whitworth.

Increased coverage within 'Wings!', and the continuing growth of the sport was increasing pressure on sites and the stipulation that full flying members should be resident within the county was imposed. However this was to prove untenable as many of the more active pilots were Lancastrians and unhappy at being granted only associate member status.

Despite the introduction of the CFX glider the early eighties were relatively quiet. Some pilots left to do other things, notably Dave Weeks who took to restoring old cars. Incoming members who went on to become the core of the Club; counted amongst them Glyn Kilsby, Steve Byrne, Ed Cleasby and V.M. Airaksinen, "The Flying Finn". One new member, Gordon Rigg, gave little indication of his potential. His first gliders did him few favours; by the end of the decade Gordon held the British XC record and was a highly ranked competition pilot.

In 1984 the first of many foreign flying trips took place when the Club sampled the delights of Ager. 1985 saw the start of the Newsletter. Despite a sometimes precarious existence it has continued and gone from strength to strength. November of the same year saw the Club dabble with towing but remain unconvinced by its possibilities in an area so well endowed with hills.

The Site Guide was revamped by Ed Cleasby early in '86 and continued virtually unchanged until 1996. A good new site was discovered too late to be included in the guide when Ian Ferguson and Glyn Kilsby pioneered Coniston Old Man.

The first Airwave Challenge took place over the August Bank Holiday with the Cumbrian team struggling to perform in depth and losing one of its strongest pilots to a vindictive tree. Stand-in was a young Robbie Whittall.

The final years of the eighties began quietly enough and the first sight of a paraglider was greeted more with amusement and curiosity than concern. The spring of '89 was good for flying and for the last time hang-gliders enjoyed the solitude of large, sparsely flown sites. One especially notable flight was along the impressive, Wastwater Screes by Ed and Matt Doncaster. Within twelve months things were to change considerably as the main sites saw hang-gliders increasingly in the minority. Down in Borrowdale, Eagle Quest, the brainchild of Jocky Sanderson, started to specialise in paraglider training. Like Top Flite before it, it was viewed with suspicion but with paragliding destined to grow the Club was faced with a considerable challenge.

With some reservations the paragliders were welcomed as full flying members but by virtue of the inevitable increase in pressure on hills the Club was to face a more difficult future in keeping its sites secure.