Flight

The photo's tell of the rest of the day but the cheeky little XC with Dave M and Tefal are worth a write up:

When it finally came on after a long wait Dave M had the cheek to turn up on cue and beat us into the air :o) but as the birds had been skying out everywhere Dave N and I were not far behind. It turned out to be, well... hmm, typical High & Over really. Gusty, broken conditions abounded but in between there were some (short) nicer periods and thermals. Both Dave's landed after a while not impressed and the unlucky Nickels variety unfortunately had to head off home.

I persisted though and Dave M relaunched as one of the better periods arrived and we got some good height whilst everyone else was stuck in the strong conditions on launch. I'd not even thought about an XC today after having reset my approach to flying (after a crushing day at Caburn a couple weeks back) so when I hit a big one I just enjoyed the ride upward. Dave M soon joined me and off we went roundy roundy roundy. I was SO happy, a big smooth thermal and the Big Man for company, another goal achieved :o).

I had seen Tefal standing on take off earlier but as we spiralled out I could see that his glider was now laid out. As we slipped beyond reach of the ridge I saw him launch and immediately start climbing (quote "I'm not gonna let those f****rs get away without me"). I wondered if it would be a double bonus for me and I expected that he'd catch us up somewhere downwind.

We toppped out at 2100'asl after which we seemed to reach an inversion and it was all we could do to hang on in minimal lift/sink. Last time I saw Tefal he was low along the ridge behind launch so when I lost sight of him I assumed he'd gone down. Not so! The bugger had outrun me from below and was taking a low and direct route toward Newhaven (quote "I don't think I made it above 700' asl all the way"). He finally landed in the last field before Sainsburys with Newhaven and the river blocking his low-level path.