| Flight details: | After going to Annecy and then being flamed grilled for the umpteenth time on the forum about my new wing as well as having some knowledgeable and caring pilots suggest that the Avax was the wrong wing for me I was a little apprehensive and had decided that after the flight i would make a decision one way or the other as to whether I'd keep it. I had also hardened myself to not commenting either way on the SHGC site....
Initially I went to Monks down as the forecast was NE, but after half an hour it switched to Easterly. I Rang Richard Westgate who suggested i head to Hambledon - with a little gentle persuasion I recruited the 2 other pilots at the hill to do the same as i didn't know where to go and RW's advice goes a long way down there.
We arrived to find it blue, pretty stable, with a couple of guys ground handling, but unable to soar.
I slowly got myself ready and as i did so the first signs of a sea breeze front were forming well south of us from about midday. Glidemet had predicted high bases with possible cumulus starting at 1pm and almost on the dot a small wispy formed a few k's north of takeoff. We all then tried launching into lift as it came through and for the first half hour or so found ourselves dashing back to terra firma as the lift died.
RW, myself and one other connected with the first bit of meaningful lift and quickly climbed a couple of hundred feet, but sadly RW and I lost it early I while the other pilot continued to climb another 300ft before either giving up or just returning to the hill.
RW and I seemed to have the most luck finding lift and were consistently at the top of the stack as we all bimbled from weak thermal to weak thermal, pushing out each time we lost lift. The wing behaved impeccably and with time i felt increasingly in tune and happy with it.
At this stage I still wasn't convinced that we were going to get away and so hadn't bothered to turn my gps (I also didn't want to as i felt that if i did there w |
