| Flight details: | Last nights spot on forecast for the cliffs this morning triggered the D & R Alert System and some texts later we were set for an early look at Newhaven. Up at sparrows it wasn't looking so perfect so a holding pattern was assumed but not for long. It all calmed down rather quickly and so we were on launch by 0730 to find conditions were a spot-on SSWish 12-14mph. A small line of cloud was building out front so we decided to stay on the south face to see what happened and got straight off.
The lift was excellent and the air buoyant to the point of large grins within 2 minutes. The cloud turned out to be benign so we ventured around the corner to play and found that you could pretty much fly where you wanted to and stay up or get high. After a good look around for any other reasons not to visit the Marina we headed off into a slight headwind, perfect.
The going was easy, although I got fairly low crossing the Saltdean gap as I was trying a different line. The stretch to the Marina was exceptionally buoyant as the wind was smack on and it was sunny. Having made it to the Marina we then stayed for about half an hour working the thermals off of the beach and flying out over the sea, it was too good to leave! Always with an eye on the sky and sea we headed back when a few wind lines started to appear but it didn't deteriorate further and we were able to play up to almost 500'asl and well out over the sea at various places on the way back. By midway it had eased again and the wind had backed slightly (as forecast) so we were again into a slight headwind. Some unusual cloud upwind triggered my desire to head back but by the time we were on the main SSW face it had caused nothing more than a little more wind again. We played there for a while trying to break 500' asl but couldn't quite get there (edit - I was looking at my alti but my GPS track suggests that I got well over 500, yipee)! Dave had to be at work later in the morning so he headed back to launch first. I t |
