| Flight details: | What a welcome surprise! A windy day for paragliding (my groundspeed dropped down to 1 or 2 km/h at times) but the basewind was very steady and thermals were active. I raced a rigid HG to Truleigh (yes, I lost ;-) and came back to join Carlo over the Dyke. Hooked the sneaky thermal in the bowl, tightened up on the core when it linked with the thermal from the leeside, and we were off under a cumulus-peppered sky ... until we got to Long Man (Wilmington) and flew into a totally different day. Carlo and I ridge soared for about 40 minutes in dead smooth air with no thermals at all until we finally hooked a scrabble and tiptoed over the back towards Eastbourne. Flew together to help optimise climbs and find new ones. Wind pushed us out to sea all the time, but that was where the convergence line was. We tried to jump upwind to the next street in a few places but didn't really connect. Carlo hooked a corker over Bexhill which put him into orbit, going up at 3.5m/s and way out to sea ... I lost the tail and settled on a sensible dry feet landing. I have to say I'm still blown away by RASP - entirely accurate forecast of wind strength, thermal climbs, height of climbs and position of convergence line. Brilliant. |
