| Flight details: | The forecast said starting N and soarable, then easing away and going more W, with epic thermals (RASP tempted me to Sussex rather than Wiltshire). Reality was frost and wind too light for anything; what appeared was NE, sometimes even ENE, so that even on the far side of the bowl it was sometimes off the hill. And it got seriously strong.
That didn't stop Greg Hammerton and Mark Watts climbing out, of course, and I'd almost resigned myself to a day too difficult for us mortals. But it eased a bit and came on to that little slope, and a few more of us had a go. Along came a nice big thermal, and a large gaggle climbed out -- I noticed Nancy, Tefal and many others.
So there we were at 3000 feet or so, but in a NE wind, with NW then SW forecast, it wasn't clear what we should do next. Accordingly, paragliders radiated to all points of the compass. I tried pushing eastwards, but it was very slow, so gave up and turned towards Truleigh instead. There I got a nice climb, and decided to push seriously out front for the first time in my Dyke career. No problem, another climb appeared, and I turned back to the pub to complete a little triangle. I lost most of my height, but climbed again at my original launch, with a maroon Niviuk that I met up with about four separate times during my flight (I heard later that it was Carlo). I tried to consult him about cross-country plans, but I think my shout was incoherent. Anyway, we separately headed west; on the way, I got a climb that took me higher than I've ever been in England. We met again over Steyning, where I shamelessly pimped Carlo's low save, and again a bit further west -- but I last saw him higher than me and further back east. He made it back to the Dyke, I think.
East of Steyning is unknown territory for me. Desperately fiddling with the buttons on my 96C to make sure I wasn't crashing airspace, at one point I took my first real-life frontal on bar (thanks, Nova designers, recovery was as advertised). The 96C |
