| Flight details: | Arrived at Caburn at about 10.15 and headed up the hill joking with Vincent that I'd certainly go XC today as I had put the GPS on charge last night and forgotten to pick it up in the morning!
It was busy at Caburn but lifty with some strong bits thrown in for good measure. Mostly everyone did a good job of keeping out of each others way but not a great job of working the often broken lift as a group.
A few had got away when I pushed west away from the crowds and very close to the dump where I found a fantastic thermal marked by a huge flock of crows. I drifted away fairly low with this, I was perhaps at 800ft but climbing consistently at between 1 and 1.5ms. I drifted with this until Ringmer with it becoming stronger and more consistent at over the opera house. I dropped out a couple times but had Mark Watts wise words in my head from his XC coaching talk - "if you loose your climb just widen your circle and you'll find it again" - worked like a charm.
Just behind the gliding club I got a strong climb which gave 3ms on the averager and took me to 3500ft. Here I glided on and got drilled! Went full bar but and tried to change my course to find anything less sinky but ended up low. Found some rough, broken lift but it wasn't enough and I landed at Five Ashes village hall for a 20k.
First XC of the year and big smiles! |
