Welcome to this section which deals with some aspects of Cross Country flying in Ireland. Due to the frustrations of weather and airspace restrictions, mentioned in ‘Setting the Scene’, such flying is not as frequent as we would like. Another factor is the rather limited number of pilots involved in the sport, which struggles, even during good times, to reach 200 on the entire island. Most of these pilots are members of the two largest clubs, Dublin Gliding Club in the Republic of Ireland, and Ulster Gliding Club in Northern Ireland, and the exploits and achievements mentioned in this section are by members of those two clubs. We are aware that from time to time other pilots have flown from other sites, as individuals or as members of smaller clubs, but we have no information readily to hand of any of their achievements. This section is a work in progress and we would welcome any contributions from such pilots or about any notable flights they may have done.
We would also welcome any other contributions to the section, by way of photos, articles, or suggestions (even suggesting corrections of any errors or omissions noted!). If you do a cross country flight be sure to upload your .igc file to the OLC so that it’s added to the National Ladder. Even better if you add a comment to tell us how you did it!