| Flight details: | After mentally beating myself up all night for being the only rigid wing to get any height above the ridge (1500ft ato) the day before and not glide over the back and at least activate the task for the rigids and therefore maybe win the day, I was determined to do better today.
The wind was about 5mph on launch which was more than the day before. A task was set from the Mynd to the Malverns for 52.3km's. The sky looked pretty rubbish by the time the launch window was open and as the ridge was not soarable half the 50 pilots waited clipped into there gliders for a couple of hours whilst the other half wandered around chatting to everyone clipped in which made waiting for something to happen more enjoyable. One pg had taken off and went down and a couple of Hangies had launched for some swallows marking some very weak cycles but also went down. After waiting a couple of hours the sun slightly broke through the clouds (but still dampened by high cirrus) and gently warmed the valley up which let off a few weak cycles. Two more Hangies had now launched and were JUST maintaining on the ridge lift. I was stuck behind Dave Matthews, sheddsy and Gordan rigg and quickly asked them to move out the way so I could launch. Within 20 seconds I was running down the hill heading for a slow climbing glider about 0.5km down the ridge. This early decision really paid off because once I got there and started climbing (very slowly) the rest of the gliders started pouring off the hill but I mangaged to stay on top for about 15minutes and was in a great position to drift over the back with the lead gaggle (Gordan Rigg, Dave Matthews, Sheddsy, Andy Hollige, Graham Phipps and a few others). I went much slower at first and let them scream off into a weak looking sky. This decision didn't really pay off because I found myself climbing just as slowly about 1km behind them but when my lift seemed to run out it was good to be able to glide towards definite lift. There were about 10 gliders goi |
