| Flight details: | Assumed today was going to be too windy to fly but it appeared there was going to be a window between the thermals kicking off and the wind getting too strong.
Went to the Dyke first as it's just up the road and it appeared to be just about on the hill and light.
6 of us in the air,after a few slope landings eventually climbed out with Mark Watts at 10:30.
Pushed to the front of Ditchling and climbed again over Plumpton College and headed for Ringmer to clear the 3500 ceiling. Mark got a good climb out of Ringmer and I had to turn into wind to get it and he was off on glide before I managed to get to base.
Spent the next hour on bar trying to catch up doing over 70km/hr (it was getting windy...)
Pushed it one climb too far and ended up scrabbling low over Tenterden in a very windy snotty climb down low - high cloud had weakened the climbs and they were being trashed by the wind.
Never really connected despite using bar to push upwind in the thermals and picked the biggest, flattest field I could find to land in after 70km.
Lesson for the day - fly your own sky, never try and catch someone that's clearly a better, faster pilot...
Congratulations to Mark and Carlo on their flights - clearly a class above! |
