| Flight details: | Sunday night: should I go to Wiltshire or Sussex? I feared that if I went west, the variable forecast might put me at at the wrong hill at the wrong time. Also, it's further to drive; also, last time I camped in Wiltshire I was attacked by an owl. So I drove to the Dyke, where the night turned very cold indeed.
With the morning breeze well off to the east, Phil and Ian G were early visitors to the bowl. A few more followed; I decided that it was too far off to launch in front of the pub, so bundled my wing over my shoulder and trekked westwards to seek my fortune. I launched into a good bit, and cruised to Truleigh in pleasant but unspectacular thermals. There I met Vincent, who was patiently soaring, and we shared a few modest climbs before parting
Back at Truleigh after a push out front, I got so low that I had my legs out of my pod to slope land, but a gang of buzzards kept me up, although their thermal was rough and nasty.
But eventually a proper and nice thermal came along, and from 3200 I pushed forward to chase Vincent, who'd found his own climb. I never quite caught him, and couldn't get up to the now excellent-looking clouds. Eventually I headed east, and found a thermal over Pyecombe golf club, where Vincent joined me again. But it wouldn't develop into anything good, and we scratched together on the Ditchling ridge, while Andrew Beresford appeared too low to join us. Those on Ditchling launch were clearly having little joy under a lot of shade.
But in front of the ridge, as the sun returned we found a real climb, which whizzed us sharply up to over 4000 feet. Smoke suggested that the forecast westerly element was now present, so we headed east. Lewes has always delivered a climb for me in the past, so I kept speeding towards it as Vincent turned back to join John Young in a thermal. By the time I looked over my shoulder to see them climbing, I was too far on. But Lewes was now in shade -- perhaps we should have headed south to the sunny Swanbo |
