| Flight details: | My last visit to the Blorenge was at the end of a cross-country, when I managed to bomb out on top of it. The Keeper's Pond car park is a beautiful spot, and the stroll across a couple of kilometres of heather to launch is pleasant even with a glider bag.
It's always a bit unnerving to be the only one at a site, especially a big one, especially when the wind isn't quite right for the main launch. The prevailing wind was NW, but a nice thermic breeze was coming up the NE bowl, and I soon ran out of excuses not to launch. I quickly gained a few hundred feet, but found that the string holding my GPS on had tangled in my pod fastening. Meanwhile, I saw below me a coupld of figures with glider bags arrive but unload at the NW face. Not fancying a long cross-country with cold legs, I decided to top land, whereupon of course I found lots of lift, but eventually made it down safely. The new arrivals were Eddie Colfox of Indian fame, and Mark Russell.
Eddie predicted convergence out front, and then demonstrated the validity of his theory by starting to climb -- but Mark and I had to slope land below launch. Then so did Eddie too, but his next attempt saw him climbing well. I resolved to have one more go and give up if I went down; finding myself well below launch, I decided that the NE bowl would still be working, and there wasn't enough NW wind to make it truly horrible. After some rough soaring, I got a proper climb, with Eddie and Mark, to about 5000 feet.
Eddie set off over Abergavenny in search of more convergence; Mark headed for the Little Skirrid, which looked a likely thermal trigger. I couldn't quite shake off a feeling that the wind was NE and I'd be able to fly over the valleys, but a glance at the speed on my GPS made me realise that was a mug's game, so I set off after Mark.
The Little Skirrid failed, and we both set off properly downwind. I was getting low when a buzzard kindly found me a climb, although I'd have preferred it not to be just above |
