| Flight details: | I've declared this flight twice this year and got nowhere near. Today I didn't declare it, didn't even know I was going to attempt it until after I took off, but this time I made it. D'oh!
The wind at the Dyke was WNW, about 8-10 mph and nice cumulus were forming quite early. It didn't take long to find a good thermal that took me to 4,000ft over the A23 north of Brighton. I then had to quickly decide whether to go east, downwind for open distance and a retrieve, or west, upwind for an out and return. I chose the latter because Luke and Paul Harvey had set a goal in that direction and were thermaling up to meet me and I thought I could follow them. They caught up with and overtook me on the far side of the Steyning Gap or thereabouts and it was quite useful to have them ahead of me to egg me on. The upwind leg had some good climbs but they had to be because without climbing quick we wouldn't have covered the ground. It took 2 hours 10 minutes and 9 thermals to get to Amberley, where I turned to head back.
The sea breeze was clearly encroaching and I felt I needed to race it back to the Dyke otherwise I'd be pushed too far forward and not be able to claim the out and return. I expected the return leg, downwind, to be much easier but, although it was certainly quicker, the lift had turned very scrappy and I only took one half-decent thermal to 2,800 ft before a long glide, getting down to 1,350 ft just before the Steyning Gap, where I thought I might bomb out but hooked a good thermal to 3,600 ft, enough to cross the gap and glide back to the Dyke with a couple of grand to spare. 50 minutes, 2 decent thermals and lots of circling in 1's and zeros for the return leg.
I overshot an attempted landing in the big bowl field and, after scratching a bit, ended up in the bottom landing field, making a crap landing. But it didn't matter because the sea breeze arrived a few minutes later putting an end to the day and I was delighted with my PB.
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