| Flight details: | Finally a nice little XC, Launch was interesting with paragliders seeming to float around in front of me, some actually looking at me, I do wonder what they were thinking, in the end I went but had to pull in to dive under a few, which was ok this time but not recommended.
At first it was very scratchy and I flew right to the little NW ridge away from takeoff and traffic but it was only good for maintaining height. I returned to where I could see some PG's getting up a little but lost a lot getting there, I did, afterwards, enjoy digging myself out the bottom landing field and climbing through the PG cloud, which at that time was the only cloud in the sky. My hope that a circling hang glider would be predictable and noticeable as I climbed up through them seemed also to work, so I was happy to find myself with altitude and space. I then pushed on vaguely towards Heathfield as I wanted to get away fromt the coast so I might observe rather than be overtaken by any sea breeze later in the day.
I found the towns and villages working well on the way took a climb from the petrol station on the A23 and also a lowish climb from over Ditchling. Looking for other similar climbs from South Chailey however did not work and after spending too long in general 2 down sink I was selecting a field and landing.
On the way to Chailey I did pass through something, I remember thinking at the time that my intent on getting to the village was too rigid a thought and passing whatever that was from an indistinct source could be and maybe was a mistake. Another thing that might have helped me would to have drifted at the top of the Ditchling climb for longer, waiting for clouds to show the way, as it was only about 20 or 30 mins after I landed that clouds began to form so drifting to the coast for a while might have prolonged my flight, so flexibility of thinking and the ability to recognise whats around you are key.
While I was de-rigging a passing farmer, happy to have a chat a |
