Flight

I made my first UK cloudbase today, my birthday :o) Got to the Dyke early to get ahead with rigging which, with practice, is now a bit less of a challenge in a brisk wind.  One HG pilot was already there then Steve Cook arrived a bit later, followed by maybe 20 or so others during the morning.  The day started strong and a bit rough and for an hour I couldn't get more than 800ft or so ATO without losing it (or maybe just not committing to going back), then losing lots of height penetrating forward.  But then it got better, the wind strength dropped a little and I got more settled into thermalling the Atos VR.  Early cloudbase was about 2,500ft AMSL but rose quite quickly to about 3,500ft.  I pulled out from under a cloud about 100ft below base, in fact, still going up and not wanting to disappear into it. So  I'm counting that as cloudbase :o) I flew for about two and a half hours, which is a long time in the air for me.  Mid-afternoon it over-developed and the wind dropped to PG-able strength, although there were only a few out when I packed up and left.