Flight

I launched a demo wing UP Summit XC I had previously flown for 15 minutes from the Dyke into a a vertical lift, I gained 35m straight up above my take off spot, then managed to push away from the hill and kept gaining height. Now about 50m from the hill I started making turns and found a really nice smooth thermal and simply held my hands in the same position with plenty of outside brake and climber and climbed, the thermal drifted over the back without me having to alter my course and kept climbing.

I reached 1000m above take off and well over the back without only having to make small adjustments to my circle with the inner brake when I felt the outer tip getting slack.

I realised that I was climbing above the cloud I that I thought was then end of my thermal and realised I must be in the sea breeze convergence> I looked at the line to try an work out where it was and realised I was surrounded on three sides by huge clouds coming at me, so I turned and ran along the convergence line following the A27.

I ran almost the length of Brighton then screwed up, the convergence line was not following the road anymore and I was loosing height, it was running across the downs into an area that looked completly free of roads and  would have resulted in a long walk if I downed it there.

I felt myself pass though the convergence line at about 650m (above take off) and have a wobble as I went through, I realised my mistake and tried to get back, I got drilled in the sinking sea air under the land air and realised I couldn't get back through - lesson learned!

I spotted the edge of Woodingdean had a big grass field suitable for landing and started heading over, saw some seagulls circling on the edge of town and tried to join them but the lift was too weak to be worth it so arrived over my chosen field at about 40m, pulled on some gentle brake and made an almost vertical gentle descent.

Grinning from ear to ear for hours! (Still am)