| Flight details: | Was it big Saturday, or mini-windy-not-quite so-good Saturday after all? It certainly looked and felt like the latter when I turned up. Had a 15 minute flight,and landed as it all went to sinky-poo. Later on, some were doing Ok, so off I jolly well went, and didn't enjoy the conditions at all. Was just about to give up when I hit a decent thermal which wasn't pushing me backwards, and up I went with John Young? on a rigid. The thermal was about 2up, and the best on offer, so I took the offer, and went with it. The rigid went back to the ridge. I kept in the thermal to base over Ditchling somewhere, flew to the north, and was rewarded with a nice climb above base on the shady side of the clouds. That's not supposed to happen, but it did. Glided off towards Lewes, and got low again. Saw Craig in the distance, doing better. I hate that! Just before I arrived to catch up with him, I hit a core, and on the principle 'never leave lift' I went with that one. It was pretty useless, but the wind was blowing me along nicely, so I kept with it until I saw a crowd of seagulls doing rather well to the south. Joined them and started going up properly now. That stopped all of a sudden, and along comes Barry the Buzzard to save me, and show how it's done. He got me out of Lewes, and above Caburn, where Barry's missus Betty the Buzzard let me in on her thermal. That was a cracker, and took up to about 3700. After that, it was glide to the lake in front of Bo-Peep, and another good thermal, then to Herstmonceaux, where Barry's cousin Bertie the Buzzard pointed me in the right direction. A glide in horrendous sink over Hailsham then resulted in another low save over the marshes, and back up high for a final glide to Bexhill, where the low saves were too low, and too rough to get in properly. Saw a nice place to land, and ignored it for more distance - flew to a quarry for a last-minute low save attempt which failed, then saw a golf club next door and landed there. At 50 feet it was bl |
