| Flight details: | At Membury services on the M4 I wasn't sure whether to go to Malvern or the Blorenge -- RASP said earlier and further west would be best, but I decided that getting to Malvern a bit sooner would outweigh the advantage of reaching Wales. And, I thought, maybe I'll get to Wales in the air!
I'd heard that 70 hang gliders would be at Malvern for a comp; as I got ready in the car park, I saw half a dozen paragliders climbing out (at about 1120) but no hangies. They were all rigged up on top, but the PGs had the scratchy cycles to ourselves. I top landed after five minutes, then had another go. Watching a yellow Golden take a 50% collapse was a reminder to be careful; the thermals seemed powerful but very, very small. Then I saw two birds (buzzards?) climbing; one carried on over the back while the other pushed forward. I flew in between them and began a steady and pleasant climb to 4000 feet, with very little drift. Several other PGs were a bit below me, and by the time I set off on my first glide some had gone earlier but lower.
The glide was not too sinky, and I moved south a bit to head for the next hill, while watching a red wing that had gone due west to see if he found anything. I also began to worry slightly about the very grey clouds to the north, and what looked like some rain. The hill duly produced a climb, which I shared with a red-and-white Swing whose pilot shouted a friendly greeting -- I later found it out it was Gus from the Thames Valley club. That took us to well over 4000 -- still short of base, but I set off before Gus, not wanting to be too close to those clouds. I glided towards a sunny patch, going up in a straight line for quite a while, which was nice but a bit worrying! Especially with a few flakes of snow landing on my pod. I was comforted, though, by the sight of Kirsty Cameron on her new Enzo well above and north, and various gliders in various directions, none of them dying horribly.
Thermalling above a sailplane was fun -- I heade |
