Flight

Firstly my apologies for the long delay in completing this write-up. Every time that I got going with it I never got more than a few lines done before something else more pressing came along (often sleep)! Finally I've achieved it though, which mirors the flight in a lot of respects I guess :o)

Firstly, yes I realise that the tracklog is incomplete but I'll explain below and I've added some proof of landing location in the form of photo's to (hopefully) complete the picture, so to speak. I hope I'm well known (trusted) enough that any criteria will be satisfied but I'm not at all bothered if the flight doesn't make it into the league as it's my first for some time and the pleasure of the journey was reward enough by far :o)

If long-winded epics (stories that is) are not your bag then stop now before I bore you to death, otherwise read on!

This story starts quite a while back actually, not days and hours but months. Looking back in my diary I can see that 2011 was a slim year for my flying, mainly due to the addition of a Border Collie puppy to the family (I blame Dave N for this crippling event). Due to the time restrictions then imposed upon me XC was a rare event although I did manage 2 back to back excursions from Caburn mid May, the latter flight being just short of my 50km dream. The rest was all local flying but after my "Best flight ever..." at the Dyke in October the diary is blank! I don't remember how it started really but dog, winter and low mood from lack of adrenaline (from not flying!) kept me grounded until my good friend Dave N kicked my arse and got me out again with his enthusiam and the loan of a glider. If it hadn't been for him I probably wouldn't be flying now and thus would not have cracked my goal. 50k or bust you might say!

I'd just like to add at this point that one of the other factors that kept me away (once I was out of the habit) was the realisation of just how dangerous it seemed to be getting on our sites due to overcrowding. (Note to Matt: Well done for bringing this to the fore mate. I wrote a long supporting piece in response to your posting but the website logged me off during my typing so I lost it! My rewrite then got rejected with some coded explanation that took me beyond my capacity to care any more. I gave up at that point (Tuesday pm) and concentrated on preparations for Big Wed. Sorry Matt, I am definately with you on this though).

So there I was in late March, imagining that I'd probably lost the skill to fly, terrified of flying in crowded skies and with a different wing in my hands. Would I ever to fly again? Step up a Northerly wind, Ditchling Beacon and Dave's boot. One and a half hours and approx 2000ft later and the world was once again a good place to be! The gods had been kind and continued to be; Caburn (mid-week) 2500'(est), Ditchling 1470/1940/3850' (into new airspace), Ditchling 1490/3300'. I finally felt like I was properly back at that point and the gods, now bored with me, gave me 3 mediocre days at Caburn, Newhaven and Bo-peep BUT hell, I bloody loved them! It was like learning to fly for the first time but accelerating to several years of experience all in the space of a few weeks. Just imagine that!

As May arrived and the spectre of my 50th birthday loomed I hatched a plan to offset this moment in my life by aiming to fly 50km on my birthday (as the forecast was looking very good for the day). Only 'aiming' I say, as I really had no belief that I could possibly do it at this point! Well the day came, I was ill and the weather was no good at all so that all fell apart but... Saturday came, the day of my 'secret' party and I got told to "Go out and do something, anything, just don't come back until 3pm". It was a windy northerly but I headed to Firle just to pass the time and check out a couple of Android Flying Apps and my new Casio Altimeter Watch. Low and behold it had eased just before I arrived and within 30 minutes I was climbing out on my own in the first climb of the day! As the hundreds ticked by I compared data but hundreds soon turned to thousands and the thousands eventually exceeded four and still no base! So if I can't fly 50km for my birthday what about 50 hundred feet, I thought? 4925' was the last figure I saw before the wispies surrounded me so I headed for an edge and made it into clear air and sink all the way back to 
launch. Grinning (mainly to myself) ensued and I returned home late for my own party (but somewhat satisfied)!

That goal achieved the thought of great distances never entered my mind again until Eastbourne slid by and so onto Big Wednesday. Dave was free, the forecast 
was very good so I hatched a plan to fly to his house in Ringmer. Dave was sceptical, mainly due to the fact that we'd have no choice but the Dyke and hence the risk our chance would be stolen away by the sheer numbers in attendance. Wed came and we went anyway and teamwork proved to be the making of the day. Dave arrived (mainly because of my plan I like to think) and flew but didn't like it then considered calling it a day. I then arrived, Tempest fresh from The Loft and promptly climbed out so he decided to stayed on. I flew back to the hill to wait for him and he decided it looked much better. I relaunched and found a climb, he joined in and we both climbed out seperately. I thought we'd just fly back to the hill again, having taken on board Dave's scepticism, but Dave took the baton and headed off toward Brighton! "Oh so we're going XC then" I thought "Okay". He forged ahead and showed me a climb so I darted in well below to join him. He rapidly buggered off toward Lewes though leaving me going round and round. The last I saw of him he appeared to be heading downwards and I lost sight of him in the shadows. I was on my own again (as I have been on almost all of my XC flying)! All that I needed to do now was to make it to either my home in Lewes or on a bit further to Dave's in Ringmer, so off I go.

I've flown at the Sea-breeze front just a few times before. All were purely for the enjoyment, not to achieve any distance and all when there was a clearly visible front marked by cloud. If I can't see it I don't really want to be anywhere near it thank you! Today provided a rare combination of those two uses for it, an unbelievable visual feast of reliable lift and a means to progress to fields afar. We (the SBF and I) met at the top of the climb and I flew up the northern face of the cloud wall, just for the fun of it! I then reminded myself of just how it goes in this situation (from many pilots recounted experiences). You have fun at the front and then realise that the front has tricked you and moved inland leaving you in a desperate dash to avoid the sea air's clutches. True enough that's what it did (for the whole flight) but I was 
ready for it and the cat never caught the mouse during this flight at least! 

South of Lewes I decided that my goal choices were almost within reach so I set off inland toward them but I bumped into a climb over Caburn and decided to take it. This gave me the chance to think about things for a while as I became "a circling orange paraglider a couple of kilometers inland-you know who you are!" Sorry but I really was going up fella :o). I saw 2 hangies and a Pg further south and lower down but still couldn't see Dave (although I thought I'd spotted a wing on the ground on Malling Down). The goals now seemed pointless without Dave there to share it so I decided to just fly! Once again the SBF had come to meet me at the top of the climb and I felt I needed to get inland quickly. It was all downward from there though so I lined up to land somewhere near to the Laughton road. Carlo's Tempest was having none of this mediocre distance milarky though and sought me out a little bubble of lift to sit in. I really though I was down for the next few minutes (it seemed like minutes) but slowly, slowly it improved. All the time I was looking for the next landing field and at one point I spotted a quite airstrip which seemed like a good place to bomb. Seconds later an engine fired up and an a plane started taxying! Had he seen me? Fortunately the climb continued to improve and as I passed directly overhead I was well above him and climbing as he opened the throttle and set off down the strip. An interesting perspective though! And where did I end up again? Yep, back at the Sea-Breeze Front! I could see how it seemed to be pivoting at the coast in the distance and swinging inland behind me so I decided to ride with it and see!

And so it continued, push inland to make distance, find a climb and end up back at the front! I played in it every time I was there, trying to learn more whilst enjoying its awesomeness. From the front I could see the coast and holy shit... there was Eastbourne. All of a sudden I realised that maybe, just maybe my 50km might be here, today, this flight? But now I was in uncharted territory so I needed to get serious and consider any obstacles ahead. Unfortunately my flight set-up for the day was for an epic 15km to Daves! I only had a audible vario in my harness, my step-daughter's pressie (the Alti watch) and my mobile phone strapped to my leg running XCSoar and AltiVario (GPS Alti/Vario) Apps. I'm in the process of trialling phone only flying (thanks Lauren for your inspiration) so I was aware of my battery limitations and the battery was not looking good! Added to that my Audio vario seemed to have stopped working so I HAD to fire up the screen to run the GPS Vario. It kept me up but was killing the last 20% of the battery quickly. At last the audio chirped back into life again and I could turn the phone screen off but as as I found a climb just before Lunsford's Cross the phone died. I didn't know that it had until I had topped out and needed to check XCSoar for obstacles ahead so I was briefly hesitant of going further. I have looked at the maps a thousand times though and eventually decided that Lydd was the only thing in my path and my track wasn't taking me there. I passed Hastings a little later and I thought that I must have cracked 50km by now so I bimbled along the coast as near as I dared using the SBF which was perfectly placed to stop any further progress by being over the beach here! I could see the coast sticking out ahead so I knew where Lydd was and there was a massive wind farm before that, I didn't fancy that at all! Pett Level seemed to be the last habitation with brick houses (a huge caravan park came next) so I decided to land there as inland there was nothing but fields. I could see the wind lines on the sea parallel to the coast at this point and that meant it was going to be windy. I found a few nice big fields with no upwind obstacles and set up to land. It was hard to get down though and my drift meant that I needed to keep changing my options. Thankfully I found a small and wind-blown thermal and this allowed me to cross a very moist looking flood plain! I wanted to be near to the road when I landed so I set up for that but as the Beach came within reach I decided it was a safer bet with a long, safe, DRY drag zone. As it happened I touched down with a little forward speed and killed the wing with the brakes without a hitch. Bonza!

The adjacent sign said Winchelsea Beach and I decided that this was a good thing because I'd never been here before :o) 

The retrieve was a short walk to a bus stop (a 40 min wait) but it took me directly to Hastings railway station, then the train to Lewes where (the man that had made this all possible) Dave Nickels, was to take me back to the Dyke, many thanks Dave :o). I had no idea that Dave Massie had landed only a couple of hundred metres from my landing spot not an hour before nor that Carlo and Nancy were also around and about. We definitely need that retrieve software Dave! I don't really feel I have the right to expect anyone to drive miles just to collect me when there is usually a way back via lifts and public transport but if others were also being collected then I wouldn't feel so bad :o) 


I didn't actually know, for sure, that I'd blown my PB away and that I'd cracked the 50km until I got home and plotted the straight line on Goggle Earth so although I had a fair idea I couldn't really celebrate until then. So if I now get a newer better wing, a newer sleeker harness etc etc (and get my instrumentation sorted) a half decent flight of circa 100km should be a doddle?

Well done to everyone that went XC on the day, it was great to see so many postings in the Flight Diary afterwards. How do you all do it so quickly? Oh yeah you write less than 2000 words! Sorry ;o)