Scottish Hike and Fly League

SHNF solo league table as of 03/05/22

It seems David Drewette has a bit of a thirst for the fight as well, he's also put in his flight from the 29th April. You can enter any number of hike and fly tracklogs, it's only the highest-scoring 6 for each pilot that count in each league 🙂

SHNF solo league table as of 03/05/22. Don't get too comfy lads, I'll be coming back from work soon and will be snapping at your heels!

Never one to be out-done, longtime contributor Andy Howson felt compelled to submit his track from Carn Liath on the 29th April.

In his own words: "I had big plans, but even as I was driving up the A9 the sky was already booming... at 9am! Things were getting very dark in the mountains by the time I got to the top of Carn Liath, so I took one climb and headed back over the flats - which were, predictably given how much air was being sucked up in the mountains, very sinky. Ah well."

Still, a good effort with 2 long hikes totalling 908m of ascent giving him a nice score of 30.84.

It's also inspired me to re-jig the score sheet a bit, so you can better see the hike/fly ratio calculation.

The total hiking distance and elevation gain (the latter scored at 1 point per 100m of height) has to make up at least 30% of the total score for an entry to count for this iteration of the H&F league. All feedback on this and any other issues are always welcome as it helps to make the league better for the following season.

SHNF Solo League table as of 02/05/22

Thanks to Mike Jardine for his latest entry - a hike and fly triangle from Tinto in the borders, making the best of a walk back from Symington! 😃

SHNF Summer league table as of 25/04/2022. conditions look good for big flights this week; maybe someone is thinking of packing a tent and making an adventure of it? 😉😃

Thanks to Daan van Alten who joins the Summer league with a hike and fly from Meall Dearg near Dunkeld 😀

SHNF Solo league as of 13/04/2022

Mike Jardine was also out on Sunday, on a very chilly H&F up Carn Liath in the southern Cairngorms.

And they're off! SHNF solo league table as of 12/04/2022 😁

Sam Smith writes:
"I wasn't able to commit to a full day of H&F, but as I was coaching at Bishop I thought I'd record some tracks and see how the new scoring system works.
Both solo and tandem tracks climbed the same hill, however the solo flight flew further, and so scored a few more points.
It was not the epic day of chasing across the highlands that some had, but it was still a lot of fun. I need the training in hiking anyway, with X-Scotia coming up!"

David Drewette also got out on Sunday, taking advatange of very lifty conditions along the Ochils to make a full traverse of the range!
He very nearly fell foul of the new 30% rule - that's 30% of the points earned for each track must come from hiking; both by distance and by elevation gain. However by scoring the track as a 5 points distance and not a flat triangle, the numbers are in his favour 😊

Andy Howson also opened his account yesterday, with a hike and fly that turned out to be pretty thermic around an atmospheric Loch Turret.
Andy was the winner of the winter league, and yet again starts this league out in front. 😁

Simon Cocker kicked off the summer 2022 league yesterday by taking his wing for a walk up the side of Ben Cruachan. Thanks Simon for the photos and for your tracks - enjoy being #1 for now! 😉

p.s. the new scoring system rewards elevation gain at 1 point per 100m of climb during hiking, and total distance only. Scores will be lower in this season than the winter league, but hopefully it will be more competitive 😁

The Summer 2022 league is here!
Tracklogs from the 22nd March to the 23rd September comprising of hike and fly activities in Scotland will be valid.
As there's interest in a UK-wide league for hike and fly, we've taken away the height bonuses in terms of summits and launch/landing heights. You'll still score points for total ascent for each hike, and total distance from both hiking and flying. A maximum ratio of 70% of your points can be covered by air, so 30% has to be from hiking (height and distance).
As always, this is a bit of experiment but let's see how we go. Good luck everyone!

🥳I think I can fairly confidently congratulate Andy Howson as the well-deserving winner of the 2021 SHNF Winter League!
Andy has put in some long, hard days and some ambitious lines to achieve an exceptional score - over 400 points from only 5 tracklogs.

Mike Jardine started out very strong before Christmas before getting stuck into the more traditional winter sports, and David Drewette put in some insightful planning (and flying) to come a very close third place.

I suppose I shall have to do something about prizes at some point, but for now you should all bask in appropriately-ranked levels of glory.

I hope that everyone has enjoyed taking part in the league; there have been some grand days out, some of which I have been lucky to experience in person, and the rest vicariously through some stunning photographs and audacious lines. A huge thankyou to all who have taken part, aided and abetted in this fun wee comp.

Keep on recording those tracks - summer league scoring rules to follow - and as always; climb high and fly far 😆🥳

Sam Smith and Iain Todd with a 20kg tandem kit, sweltering up the side of Craig Leith near Alva. Starting the tracking at the bottom would have scored more points, as would have tagging the summit. Still, a good time was had by all!

It's now easier to email Scottish Hike and Fly League

David Drewette with his final entry for the winter league; a lunchtime H&F with a touch-and-go landing to bank some points on Bank Hill....

It's been a magical few weeks, with the first thermals emerging from their burrows and making their way groggily skywards. The sun has been visible in the sky for days at a time, and it is apparent that Spring is finally here!

And so, the Winter league comes to a close. The last date for entries was the 21st March 2022, so any tracks up to and including this date will count for the final winter league scoring.

Please email tracklogs, route descriptions and photos to [email protected]

If anyone's keen for a Summer league, I'm sure I can spare the bandwidth to score it. We can start scoring tracks now, though please keep your eyes open for an email to discuss a more universally applicable system of scoring.

Adrian How has just published his write-up of his excellent west coast Vol Biv from last April - check it out here:

https://ahow2guide.blogspot.com/2021/04/glencoe-kintail-vol-biv-part-1.html

Here's hoping for more of the same this year! 😁😁

Glencoe-Kintail Vol Biv - Part 1 The Friday forecast was ok but with a great looking weekend for the West Highlands, I wanted to get myself in a position to explore the swat...

Andy Howson further increases his lead at the top of the table, while David Drewette pushes ahead into 3rd place and has a real chance of passing Mike Jardine with his next outing 😉

Sam Smith writes: "I decided on an early start in the Ochils on Sunday to take advantage of the calm forecast and to get some more airtime on my new speedwing. Linking 3 hills together looked a lot easier on paper, but I was still able to meet my mate in Alva at 11am to fly some thermals later"

David Drewette was boxing clever on Sunday, chaining together a bunch of summits in the sunny Ochils (and a tasty touch-and-go landing on the summit of Wood Hill) to grab 93 points. Not bad for a few hours' work!

Andy Howson went for a big romp in Glen Lyon on Sunday, further increasing his lead at the top of the table. Some great pics of some snowy hills as well; a very different story to just a few miles South...

David Drewette got on the poles today and smashed out this hike and fly circuit above Dollar. Clever linking of summits and some smooth glides netted him 84.21 points, and puts him up to 6th place on the league!

SHNF Solo league standings as of 28/02/22. Andy Howson claims the lead from Mike Jardine with 3 weeks left to go. Can he hold on to it? 🤔😅

David Drewette blasted up King's Seat from Dollar in a little over an hour (520m of vertical ascent!) for this early-morning hike and fly back in February. 👍

I always get a kick out of scoring Andy Howson's adventures.... "I went up Tops of Fichell for a soaring session today, the wind had other ideas though (it went from too strong to just right to too light in about 10 minutes). I decided I may as well tack on another hill and call it H&F :)" - absolutley brilliant work!

Andy's certainly not shy of a Hike, and his flying's not bad either... he's definitely one to watch for this year's X-Scotia ;)

SHNF Solo League table as of 19/02/2022...
Andy Howson is snapping at the heels of Mike Jardine with just over a month to go...

Andy Howson returns from Colombia and decides to re-acclimatise with a 4.5 hour slog around Glenshee today. Tough going and howling winds didn't slow him down, and he tagged 3 big summits before getting a glide back to the car park.

Awesome photos too!

Sam Smith with a gentle H&F in the Ochils today.

Sam Smith writes: "The morning came and with it, some slightly better conditions than had been forecast. I chanced a quick blast up the hill behind my house and found the wind to be crossed but good enough for a TTB.
It was nice to see a break in the weather and to enjoy being outside again.
Pulling off a big, swoopy landing for an audience of cheering primary schoolkids is probably the coolest I'll ever be."

A huge thankyou to everyone who took part in the 2021 league!
We had 101 entries from 15 pilots, including several multi-day entries, some tandem hike & fly and even a tandem vol biv!

A special mention must go out to Mike Jardine, who put in a whopping 23 entries, and was an early adopter of the league back when local restrictions meant we could only play within sight of our house.

The AW2022 league is still ongoing (up to the 21st March), and is showing some stiff competition with a few new entrants this time around.

It's been a lot of fun finding new ways to play in the hills, I hope everyone is safe and well and keeping all fingers and toes crossed for a break in the weather soon.

Some decent action in the past few days has made a few changes in the top 5 of the league. There's still all to play for though, and with the days getting longer there's more scope for some bigger lines as well. At the moment I'd say it all hinges on who has time off work when the next spell of good weather comes 😁

Sean Chu took a bold and hikey line from the Glenshee Ski Centre on Saturday. The balmy conditions of the previous day had long gone and a Miniwing helped him to grab two short flights in some dramatic-looking conditions. Thanks also for the photos Sean; some great shots there 😀👍

Glenshee was definitely the place to be today. Andy Howson blows Sam out of the water with this incredible triangle, and some cracking photos too!

Cheers Andy, 2nd place in the league is currently yours... 😉

Sam Smith with a hike and fly loop in Glenshee:
"I had half a plan to drive up to the Cairnwell for an easy hike up to some 900m peaks that I could enchain by hiking and flying to the West, however the weather didn't get the memo so I had to improvise.

The Devil's Elbow (at the ski centre) was in cloud when I arrived, and the wind felt West rather than the forecast South, so I headed back down the Glen to romp up Ben Gulabin, which was in and out of cloud and is launchable in many directions. By the time I'd summitted and set up to launch, the bigger hills to the North were starting to poke out of the cloud but I had an idea of how to string as many marked summits together as I could with the daylight and weather, keeping lower down in the glen to avoid the clag.

I flew from Ben Gulabin to the Southern flanks of Bad an Loin, only spotting the rabbit holes at the last minute as I arrived for a slope landing. By 11:30 the skies had cleared and I was starting to regret dressing for a day schlepping about in the cloud with all my gore-tex on!

I pushed North up the East side of Glenshee and managed to get a cheeky glide to a quad track which helped me to cover a lot of ground quickly. The temperature continued to rise throughout the day and I was fast running out of space in my bag to stash discarded layers; I was festooned with drying fabric as I topped out on Carn Ait at around 13:00h.

The day was even starting to get a bit thermic; not enough to climb in, but certainly enough twistyness to muck up my alpine launches (that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it!)

Two glides, interrupted by a top landing and relaunch, got me back to the car by 14:00, which was a pretty good safety margin as I'd not really done any big days since November."

Link to the tour here: https://www.komoot.com/tour/635878788?share_token=at53l6hUPWfacQULHZuh30itkEGGugkMmb9QSAGt9inogJrn5v&ref=wtd

Andy Howson puts in the first entry of 2022 with this rather epic looking H&F loop at the top end of Glen Clova.
Congratulations Andy!