| Flight details: | Got to the Dyke about 8.30, flew from around 9am for about 1 1/4 hrs in nicely developing thermic conditions, including flying to Truleigh and back. Landed for a pee as cumulus clouds were approaching from the Nth and the possibility of an xc was looming. Took off again about 10.30 and pretty soon found a strong thermal to base while everyone else (quite a crowd by now) were on the deck, which made the choice to go xc easier. Found my vario had reset height to Metres, that I had forgot to zero it before takeoff, and the air was too busy for fiddling with electronics, so had to struggle with mental arithmetic to avoid airspace in front of the Dyke, as base was about 4,000' ASL.
Keen to head off on my very belated 1st xc of the year, and not to be put off by the Nth wind, proximity of the coast, and lack of sea breeze front, my first plan was to use the developing Nth-Sth orientated cloud streets to fly upwind, then hop across to the next street to the east and crab Eastwards that way. For a while this worked so well I hatched hopes of an out and return to Lewis, but then the streets stopped working and I went for plan B, heading for the Uni site at Falmer (which is usually a reliable thermal source) then the Swanbourough Ridge and so on to Firle, where I hoped others would be flying and I might be able to get a lift back.
Nothing but severe sink followed for what seemed an unreasonably long time, but just as I was seriously reviewing landing options at Falmer I spotted a gaggle of seagulls very low down in the lee of the new football stadium, and then found a fairly rough thermal above them that took me back to base.
I then spent a while catching and losing thermals, and slowly tracking East and loosing some height, gaugeing my moment for a dash across the valley to the Firle ridge. When it came to it there were a couple of small thermals part way across, so I felt quite optimistic. I had planned to pass over the landfill site while approaching the rid |
