After a week at looking at beautiful skies in Wales that were blown out on the hill I was rather disheartened and was not that keen on another day sat on a blown out hill with a beautiful sky but was persauded to give it a try.
On arriving I saw a gaggle leave and so thought there may be a chance of that UK XC I have been craving all week. After unpacking and getting off the hill it proved to be rather hard to get high even though the thermals were strong they were also rather rough in places. Well third time lucky after two slope landings from bombing out I final got a decent climb. I wasn't that high but decided to leave anyway as I was still climbing. I didn't mind even if I bombed out a few kilometers and had to walk all the way back.
I took in all the info I needed from the airmap to get mayself to Andover and thought I would get there if really lucky so didn't pay too much attention to anything after that! The climbs were slow and quite hard in the wind but I did better than I expected and thermalled up past Andover then not knowing which way to stay out of airspace. Just at the right moment my radio went crackle and there was an enquiry from the ground as to if I was still flying and I was able to double check some navigation info while still in the air. I plowed on for a while then hit a load of sink and didn't find any thermals that my rather tired self could use. I found a lovely field next door to a services on the A34 to land at and managed an easy retrieve back to my car rather tired and pleased. A rather good end to an otherwise frustrating week :-))) | 