| Flight details: | Having battled for half an hour or so in the swarm surrounding the broken lift in front of and above launch, I thought it best to look for lift elsewhere. I'd intermittently seen gulls and gliders climb out from the Westerly facing bowl to the West (above the scrapyard). This time I was high enough to reach the column of gulls and quickly realised I was committed to going over the back.
I was happy to get away from the crowds and see what the loaned Ozone Rush 4 I was flying could do. It turned responsively and progressively, giving plenty of useful feedback as I carved the lazy thermal. I did give some confusing feedback in the stronger lift earlier but maybe that was just me.
As I flew over Vincent (and I quote his words: "I HATE YOU!!!") and the opera house the lift slowed and I dribbled through zeros for a while. As I held position looking for my next clue I could see Dave Willis being sprung out in front of launch. He climbed fast, turned back and before long we were working weak lift that was taking us over the gliding club. As that died off we made different decisions. I headed downwind as I thought the line we were on was pretty bouyant whilst Dave seemed to head for some dark fields to the East - he landed near a pub in Laughton which meant he wasn't too disappointed.
It was near the aerial North of Laughton that my work ethic would be tested. The lifty line was delivering when a solo gull which was going up fast for the standards of the day caught my eye. On route, I lost sight of the gull and I never did find that core, but it took me towards something resembling lift. After what seemed like many, many turns I had travelled 4kms and only gained 500ft. My mind starting to wander and switch off. I noticed the wind speed was now reading "24" - forgetting that I had changed my GPS's speed units from mph to kph I made the decision to abandon the climb and land. What an idiot. As I assessed landing options I was getting drilled and it was then I became |
