| Flight details: | I went to the Dyke and to my surprise Luke Nicol was flying, it was only about 10.30. He hit a heavy down cycle and went down. When he got back he said that Matt. (South Down Hang gliding School) had already gone XC. Steve Purdy arrived and said there was a howling S W wind just over the back. By now two paragliders had set up and taken off, these pilots were very helpful and proved lift was about. I quickly took off and within minutes all three of us were in the air climbing. I got to aroud 3,000'ASL and glided off to a good looking cloud over Jack and Jill. When I was established the 2 PG's joined me and we played with the thermals all the way to just beyond Lewes. I headed off to a cloud north west of Arlington and left the paragliders that were in a weak climb a few km behind. It was very cold, cloud base was about 5,500' I went to about 5,400 to avoid any airspce issues from this part of the flight.I was worried about getting pinned in at the coast by the strong westerly but had no choice to be at Hailsham as it was blue inland and it was only now that I had options as clouds were forming near Heathfield. I glided inland and some whisps were forming on rout, I stopped and climbed, waiting to see what was happening to the sky. Convergance was starting to form in places and the sky looked more promising as I flew over Darwell resovoir. I was very cold so I went on a log glide, I climed again before Tenterden and then looked at options, I headed inland to Ashford and looked at the cloud that had been to the East of the town but it didn't work so I glided off to a nice looking cloud, but it was small and I was getting lower. I glanced at the Alti meter and was down to 1,200' ASl, not much margin for error now. I worked bits of broken thermal which were very rough but I could not get stuck into them. I though it was all over and glided off again for some sunshine with a cloud shadow and a landing option when suddenly I flew into a peachy thermal. I said out loud to |
