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road trip to rathlin island and the north coast of ireland

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andrew wallace:
John, richard, Terry Jones and myself all met up this morning in Ballycastle to take the ferry over to Rathlin Island
now the winds this week around the north coast of ireland have been very strong and most days the ferry has been cancelled
so after a lot of should we go or shouldn't we go three of us decided we would go and boy was the crossing rough  :(  :( at one point i was thinking to myself Terry made the right decision stayin on dry land

once we landed in Rathlin we jumped on the bus and that took us to the west light house and this is were the bird sanctuary is and the site that we were going to fly off was perfect in every way

we flew for 3 solid hours and then the bus returned for its last stop of the day.We returned to the harbour and straight back onto the ferry for a much calmer sail home  [-o<

i'm glad we went it was a great experence  :clap:  :clap:  we're hoping of doing the same thing next year again

sorry i've no pictures  john and richard had the camera's

we're hoping to fly off other parts of the north coast tomorrow depending on the wind direction  :D

Richard Boyd:
Just have to say a big thanks to John, Andrew,Bill and Terry for making the trip to Rathlin so so special.
I have travelled all over Europe flying planes and I was taken aback by the beauty of Rathlin Island.
The lift was amazing, the people of the island were so friendly and the company was second to none !
Today Sunday we had to fly from land as the ferries were cancelled , we headed to Andrews slope at Benevena !
At a guess winds were in the 50mph range and my planes were not going to fly in the winds.
Andrew did test fly a plane for Bill.
Bill tossed it of the cliff and after a flew leeps in the turbulance the wing was up and away, next thing a maasive Eagle came up from under the cliff to have a look, it frightened the life out of us.
I never even knew there were Eagles in Northern Ireland.
We watched this captian of the skys float around in the massive winds with ease and grace.
Magnificent sight to behold.
No one else flew today so we all retired to the caravan for coffee and of course the chat about our weekend  to Rathlin and the North Coast.
 
Thanks to you lads for giving me some of the best memories of my life.

Richard

billscottni:
Great weekend and thanks for the invite. I missed the trip to Rathlin because of work, but headed up as soon as I finished. I flew the Zagi for about 20 minutes early evening before we retired to Andrews' workshop for JP to do a few repairs.
Today, we headed back to the same slope below Benevanagh to fly and found 40mph+ winds and no chance of much flying. Andrew & Terry tried flying there Bullets. Andrew a little more successfully, but even he was basically tracking back and forth on the same line and unable to penetrate.

I asked him to maiden my Predator Bat, a rather heavy plank style model. A launch and a few ups & downs and Andrew got it under control and was speeding up and down the slope, when he uttered "What the b***Y ell is that", as a very large (as yet unidentified Eagle) breeezed in to view, wondering what the hell is your problem with this wind speed!. He had a good look and then just sat there watching while we flew.

A good day, but only a few pics.

andrew wallace:
:shock: i've never seen an eagle in real life before  :shock:
i was trying to watch bills plane and watch this massive bird at the same time
the whole time it was in the air it never flapped it's wings once  :)

another brilliant weekend was had by all  :clap:
thanks to everyone  :clap:

andrew wallace:

 :shock: i think this is what we saw today a golden eagle  :shock:

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