| Flight details: | "No more free steps to heaven
It's no game"
It is a game, of course, but the day began with a reminder that, while the prizes are small, the losses can be great. A pilot took a big and unexpected whack not far above the slope at Rybury, was turned back towards the hill, and flew into it fast. He remained conscious and able to wiggle everything while we awaited the helicopter ambulance. The paramedics were happy enough with his condition to transfer him to a road ambulance rather than flying him straight to hospital, which must be a good sign.
It had looked smooth beforehand, and indeed it had felt smooth on the other side of the bowl, where I watched the incident from the air at about the same height. But when flying resumed (by which time a couple of wings had gone XC from nearby Ruddlers), the first glider to launch flew very sharply upwards and backwards, with each wingtip tucking in turn. At this, I considered packing up for the day; but things seemed to calm down both for that pilot and in general. I drew some comfort from the fact that I was on my EN A Yeti - although I keep reminding myself that flying a low-end glider doesn't make bad conditions into good conditions.
We saw a big gaggle go from Milk Hill as smaller ones got away from Rybury. After a few attempts, I found a strong but broken thermal and followed it over the back, a fair way below Steve Newcombe on his Delta and RJ Macaulay on his Mantra 6 (RJ got beyond Milton Keynes, and Steve a long way too). The climb was broken; I lost it and reached the slope at Milk, but too low to join those soaring - even though it was clearly now windy.
Two more gaggles left without me, including Emily and Gus, as I dithered about going low or pushing back in front. Finally I found a thermal that felt like the real thing. So it proved to be, as I climbed at up to 5 metres a second. I started below Richard Ford on a blue 777 and Danni Capelin (I think) on a blue Nova; the Nova seemed to make no attempt to |
