| Flight details: | Seven Sisters 23rd August 23rd 2014
The weekend was meant to be a BCC one, so I drove to Abergavenny to meet up with the crowd and then to Merthyr Tydfil, as that was the designated SEW site. It was on the strong side, but died down enough for some to get flying, only for Alistair Andrews (Joint Services) to say on the radio that rain was coming in. He landed, having given abot 15 minutes notice, but not everyone followed until it was getting unpleasant. Thankfully all were down when the rain came in with a gust front. After emerging from the rain, a few more launched, with two getting away almost immediately. However it was very cyclic, flyable � too windy � potentially wet- flyable etc, so after a pow-wow with my SWWSC team mates, it was decided to bin our participation in the BCC that day, and head further South West where it was thought to be brighter.
We decided on Seven Sisters, a NW site, where it was top end when we arrived about 4pm. It slacked off slightly for Steve and Rhun to get off whilst I made sure my lines were untangled, and Rhun had a feisty time which he didn't enjoy, so they landed after 15 mins or so. However on another lull I had a go on my own, pushing out in front. A long (at least 2km) dark cloud was on it's way in, so I decided to push out further and to my surprise, I kept going up. No turns, just a relatively straight upwind line to about 2500', and when I got to the side of this cloud, some 360's and then another climb to 2900'. It looked very dark, so I wasn't keen to get under it, as I'd have probably ended up inside. However if I'd been inclined, I think I could have stuck with it over the back for a distance. The wind strength, with potential rotor and lack of landing possibilities for a while over the back put me off though, so I spent my time boating around in the abundant lift.
After 50 mins in the air, I landed in waist high grass covering holes which made walking back to launch hard going. We all then had another go, fo |
