| Flight details: | Here's a video of the flight. http://youtu.be/7-sY3RqFbi0
If you flew yesterday you could well be in it, as I had an hour on the ridge before getting a half decent climb.
I wanted to go XC, but the high pressure over the UK meant a light NE in the South East, ranging to lighter Southerlies in Wales. I decided not to tag along with my XC guru mate who was off to a Thames Valley site, and headed to Bo Peep where it would be a little stronger.
It was blatting through with almost everyone on the ground, but after an hour or so chatting it calmed down enough for me, and off I went. It was all local, with nothing much over 1000', and although busy everyone was spread out with the reasonable thermals. The wind was around 20kph at times though, and this resulted in me getting drilled in compression not once but twice. Thankfully I stayed airborne.
After an hour I was thinking of some lunch and a pee, when I caught a nice thermal in front of the ridge and decided to follow it, rather than pushing out front which was what I had been doing. It took me to just over 2040' and half way to Newhaven, so rather than going for a beach landing, and a long retrieve, I decided to push West to see if I could pick up anything else. There was v little unfortunately so after searching over a housing estate I landed just East of the incinerator. Good fun landing out, and my first "legal" XC since finally pulling my finger out and getting my Pilot exam.
It was a long walk back on the South Downs Way but worth it.
Mike |
