Flight

In my dreams, I've flown across the Firth of Lorne to the Isles of Mull and Iona; tracked along the rocky spine of Corsica; soared the towering cliffs of St Kilda. Today I had to be satisfied (and was) with a trip to the Isle of Sheppey, south-east England's answer to the less desirable districts of Detroit. Impressive, I hear you say; ah, but I cheated by starting not from Caburn, but from the tiny hill above Thurnham in Kent, by courtesy of the Dover and Folkestone Hang Gliding Club. 

After a scratchy morning, with the wind frequently off to the south, I managed to guess the start of a cycle and was soon above launch and tracking quite fast over the back. I fully intended, as Matt Pepper had advised, pushing out in front and getting high there, but as I kept climbing I began to wonder if this were feasible. Eventually it occurred to me to switch on my GPS (I'd forgotten to set my altimeter before flying) and it revealed that I was at 3499 feet and 11 inches, fortunately a full inch below controlled airspace.

I set off back towards launch, and was just beginning to be sure I'd make it (but with no height left), when I hit the sort of climb that you don't want to fall out of. Like Odysseus beckoned by the Sirens, I realised that I couldn't resist the call of Sheppey, so I flew there, on what was certainly the roughest of my British cross-countries; luckily Annecy had toughened me up a bit. I had to keep baling out of the climbs well below cloudbase; if I'd been able to go higher I think I'd have made it to the far corner of Sheppey, but as it was I lost most of my height as I flew over the bridge to the island, and never found another climb. I landed not by Circe or Calypso, but by some friendly road builders. I hitched for a good 30 seconds before a very kind lorry driver (in his car) went out of his way to take me right back to launch.

I like Thurnham!

(Does anyone know how to make the site calculate the distance from the turnpoint coordinates? I'm not