| Flight details: | Got to the Dyke at 10:15 and it was gusting to 23 mph. Saw Nigel Barrett
leaving with a couple of students and then Scott turned up, followed by Luke.
Others turned up and we all rigged. Luke took off and got no great height in
lively looking air. When he seemed to be climbing, Dave Matthews launched and
soon they were both at ridge height in front of takeoff. When they found a
climb I launched and tried to get in under them but failed and, after a couple
of small climbs, I landed in the paddock. Dave and Luke carried on in the
climb and drifted towards Brighton. I took off again and, once I got a bit of
a climb, Ozzie launched and came into the same thermal. About 1000'ato I had
to move over and let Ozzie climb through me but I caught up again by 2000'ato.
Ozzie pulled back to the Dyke and I kept with the climb, drifting over Falmer
at 2600'ato and then gliding to Lewes, where I got a climb from the east side
of town with the sea-breeze convergence not far to the south. Drifting with
this thermal over Glyndbourne I was getting some good climb rates but it felt
like the sea-breeze and the crops were blowing SW at ground level. I got to
3200'ato north of Arlington reservoir and heard, on the radio that Luke was
down at Hailsham and Dave was not finding it easy a bit further east. Worried
about getting stuck at Pevensy levels by the sea air, I headed north and
glided at 5-down, with only a couple of too weak thermals encontered, to land
at Cowbeech, north of Hailsham. Dave Matthews had gone a bit further but I
wonder if I might as well have dropped south to the convergence to get a
better distance. |
