| Flight details: | A stunning day for those who got to the BCC at Hundred Club (and didn't lose their gliders). Although we arrived somewhat late (it's a long drive and getting stuck in the mud didn't help) and the first gaggles had already left, there was still plenty of lift and fun to be had. Once you are on top, Hundred House is a wonderful site made all the better by a fantastic sky of cloud streets.
The thermals were making it cyclically quite windy on launch and I picked a moment. Soon after launching I got my first thermal which climbed to 4,872ft without a lot of drift before gliding off over the wonderful high moorland. I had to leave my next thermal whilst still climbing at 5,300' as I was getting into whispy clouds (pretty cold there too � should have worn better gloves and more suncream).
I dribbled along the A470 trying to take photos of my brother-in-law's house (although actually I had already passed it and was photographing the wrong village) and then watched as Jack (who had flown over the top of me and then gone further East towards Hay Bluff) looked like he was down and out (he had picked out his landing field). Jack then found a low save and started to climb. All that concentrating on the wrong things meant that I was getting low and a Gradient glider just below and behind me succumbing to gravity. I found one last scrappy climb which gave me another 1,000' but I failed to connect with anything more so landed within easy reach of the road and watched Jack (on my old glider) float over my head.
Getting back to the car on top of the hill was another adventure with four lifts � my first lift was from a granny who owned a Harley Davidson (sadly not what she was driving) and had tried paragliding on Hay Bluff but found the walk ups too hard and the last was from the farmers whose land we crossed to get to the take off.
A fantastic day all around. |
