| Flight details: | An interesting day on the Milk Hill Grand Massif. As per normal ignored the main Milk Hill bowl and wondered round to the spur of the White Horse. Normal waiting around until things started to kick off... which they certainly did. I took off in hot pursuit of Carlo who seemed to launch straight into a climb that was a real boomer, at times more of a high speed elevator ride with the odd sudden stop meant for some quick reactions given various noises from the wing to keep me on my toes.
After all that fun, getting away from the hill proper wasn't too bad and the gaggle I was in headed for Marlborough...not that we had much choice given the wind. Due to the NOTAM covering the Fairford airshow the route had to be more or less over Wantage (or South of it) and then Didcot and beyond... at least that was the plan. We had permission to infringe the restricted area of Harewell, P106, as long as we didn't take photos or cross the perimeter fence...no fear of taking photos as I would have had to take my hands off the controls and that wasn't going to happen! I landed in strong winds near Culham much to the surprise of a few walkers and me thinking I might get wet in the Thames.
Of course the flying is only half the story, it took me 7 hours to get back to the hill and my car due to the odd delay. Top tip though is the Pewsey Vale dial a bus service. Just ring the number and the local bus arrives and drops you off where you want to go more or less, in my case Golden Ball car park (0845 652 5255) for £3.20 from Pewsey... lot cheaper than a taxi. |
