Flight

Today was the first opportunity for me to free-fly in a little while, although with a zillion things need doing yesterday (especially after our trip to Chamonix / St Hilaire last week)... Oh well - the weather forecasts dictate that I MUST go flying! ;^)

I thought it was quite sporty conditions at times today (although thinking back on it I only got a couple of small tip tucks). A bit too much wind generally really, quite punchy � sometimes even quite good � thermals, big sink between climbs, some marked inversion layers with quite �concentrated' wind shear layers; these factors � and more � sometimes conspired together to create some � quite unpredictable � choppy areas of swirling air. On one occasion, thermalling in an area of convergence lift out front of Mount Caburn, I hit a bit of air which felt just like I'd flown into a whirly (dust devil) but I was at 2500ft ASL at the time!

I spent a long time (over 3 hours in total!) trying to work myself into a good position to leave the hill, fighting against the wind / sink. Eventually I found myself in the right place at the right time (when the wind higher up turned West, as forecast) and decided to take a climb back near/behind Newtimber Hill and leave the hill behind. 

As cloudbase was over 3500ft (just!) I decided to drift with bits of lift, chasing clouds, and work my way around the airspace at Falmer. From there I flew past Loose Bottom, over Kingston, and went on a glide towards an interesting looking convergence cloud in the middle of the Ouse valley out front of Mount Caburn. This is where I found the aforementioned bit of nasty air (MUCH nastier than anything I'd found near the Dyke). I stuck it out and got back out to �base over The Lay then pushed on towards Firle village where I could see a few people flying on the hill (with the wind looking very Westerly from my point of view). 

I got a bit of a climb just past Firle but quickly lost it so pushed on towards Wilmington. I got my next climb o