Flight

Forecast for Thursday looked epic so I took the day off. Got to the hill and it was much windier than forecast and N rather than NW. Eventually it dropped a little so I gave it a go - was actually a lot smoother that I expected in-between the super strong thermals (was spiraling upwards at 6m/s at one point!). Wind dropped a little and went NW and just as I thought it would get good the sky blued over and all the lift went away! Maybe some sea air coming in?

Around 2.30 or 3 some little Cu started forming and some nice cycles came through, with quite a bit of westerly drifty. Tried to get away in one and ended up drifting very low over the golf course. Was getting a bit of lift but not being a legend like Vincent couldn't manage to climb. Thanks to the hangy for giving me a lift back to the hill!

Finally got away in a nice thermal with a couple of others who both eventually headed back to the hill. Looked ok to me so I got some circling practice in. Seemed to top out around 3,500ft and getting over the a27 I wanted a crosswind glide. Found a little wispy cloud to the East which looked good so I headed over and found 0s to circle in. After a while a seagull came and showed me the stronger lift next door. At the top of this climb I was over NE Brighton and there weren't any clouds downwind. Cross/slightly upwind was a nice dark cloud + a fire where the smoke had just changed direction to point at the cloud + a bird circling. Seemed like a good bet but after a long sinky glide I just found some turbulence. 

Ended up low over the uni. Got a bit of lift by some trees downwind of a cricket pitch and tried to work it but I was getting low and close to going downwind of the trees so I did the sensible thing and headed away from the trees to land. A few seconds after landing I saw a bird climb out in the lift I'd just left!!!

Still a really nice flight and great to get an XC in on my day off even if it was a short one. 

Thanks to Matt for the retrieve!