| Flight details: | EPIC! 8~D
An unforgettable experience, from start to finish!
Some of the best XC conditions I've experienced at times, but still some tricky bits. The wind has light to moderate SSW.
We had an incredible, booming climb out, averaging 4-5 m/s, all the way to 'base at 5800ft ASL!
We had a very nice gaggle to start, which gradually broke up as pilots flew at their own speeds, and had varying amounts of luck.
I flew with Guy Anderson, Graham Steel and Hugh Miller for a little while, but Gray got low between Abingdon and Oxford, and Guy shot off in a different direction to our declared goal at Peterborough, so Hugh and I carried on together.
Hugh and I got low at around 90 km from launch. We scrabbled whilst Gray flew past us in orbit.
I struggled in very broken lift whilst Hugh climbed out and carried on.
I was then joined by Charles Norwood and we helped each other get back up to base.
On the next glide the tables with Hugh were reversed, as Charles and I flew over the top of him whilst he was getting a low save.
We pushed on NE and I spotted Gray climbing near Rushden. He pushed NW and I lost sight of him for a while. I decided to carry on towards Peterborough, rather than detour.
I was lucky and made more out of a couple of climbs and then took a much better glide line under a cloud which gained me a couple of kms and thousands of feet by the time a reach Peterborough. It was about 5pm at this point so I thought there should be at least another hour left in the day, and decided to carry on.
At this point I spotted Gray climbing high a couple of km to the N, so he'd managed to stay up and maintain his lead. We both pushed on NNE, with Hugh and Charles chasing.
Charles landed near Spalding, whilst Hugh and Gray landed at Boston. I managed to catch some more weak climbs and squeeze another 25km out of the day, eventually landing in a big stinky stubble field which had a big pile of manure in part it.
When I explained to a local |
