| Flight details: | Forecast light NW, followed shortly by howling Westerly. So I arrived earlyish, and had nearly an hour in nice conditions but nothing better than a 1-up to 250 ATO at best. Later on, it started getting bumpy and nasty, so came down. Conditions quietened a tad, so took off again, not expecting anything better, but first thermal has me and Shaun B. in a 3.8 up with hardly any drift. Me with no wallet (slipped into car), no phone battery, no cash, no expectations, but it was going up, and would be last chance to make something of the day, so went with it to see what happened. Got quite difficult to core the thermal, and Shaun and I swapped being higher all the time. Petered out, and Shaun went for a glide � I stayed in 0.2 down, drifting. And sometimes drifting into lift, so stayed there. Shaun bombed, but later on was doing better. so I glided off to him, but hit the usual sink, until the University, where a very rough zero kept me up, desperately trying to get past Shaunm, who had finally landed near the A27. It improved slightly as the new football stadium came up, and I thermalled off the tower crane, eventually getting a 1 up to get clear. This improved to a 2 up over the field beyond in the sunshine, and to 1800 over take off, in what was again a zero. Glided off into horrendous sink towards Caburn, when Barry The Buzzard saved me again, 30m away, going up while I was in a 6.8 down. That thermal turned into a 1 up or less, and drifted me towards Firle, getting lower and lower, but drifting. One last thermal in front of Firle was the last, and I glided to a field just short of Selmeston for 25K. Was just packing up as Kevie-Wevie runs across the field, and gives me a lift to Sussex College, where Steve P ran me back to the Dyke. What a nice man. Go buy a wing off him!
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