| Flight details: | When I arrived it was westerly and howling, as forecast. Then the front blew over and it settled down a bit and veered NW but still quite windy, which was more of a challenge for rigging and ground handling than in the air. Once launched it was quite buoyant. Even having seen the favourable forecast lapse rates on RASP, I was surprised just how lifty it was for December. I've described the lift as "weak" but a couple of times I found myself in broken 3- and 4-ups.
Miles, Luke and I, on our VRs, went down to Truleigh in vertical formation. Luke and Grant Crossingham made over 2,500ft thermalling over the back, half way to Brighton. Later the wind backed more WNW and, for a while, picked up enough - gusting to 30mph - to persuade most of us that it was time to pack up. It dropped again late afternoon as the sun was setting. A fun day was had by all.
Pilots out: me, JamesG, Nicos, Luke, Miles, NickC, Youngie, PaulR, GrantC, Ron and Dave, SteveU, Ozzie. |
