Flight

Nice little XC from Combe Gibbet

I hadn't flown Combe Gibbet before, so decided to avoid the crowds at Devils Dyke and head up to Combe. As I was driving out of Brighton at 8am the sky was looking epic, so I had high hopes. As I headed further north/west there was more cirrus and it looked less and less epic! 

Arrived at Combe round 10:30am (after a 2.5 hour drive) and was surprised at how few pilots were there; 3 or 4 paragliders climbing out (and heading over the back) leaving about 4 on the hill / soaring. I guess I missed the memo that everyone from the southern club was heading for Devils Dyke :)

I launched pretty soon after arriving (which is very unlike me, as I usually faff and make a cup of tea first); easy climb (loads of thermals popping off all over the place). It's a great and easy site - no hazards to speak of and a huge take off.  

After getting a bit of height I stuck with a climb and committed to going over the back. Not epic at around 1m/s but steady and friendly. Didn;t take long to get to cloud base - I have a bad habit of being over cautious and leaving the climb well short of base but this time I did the opposite. It was getting misty but I carried on circling for a couple of turns and bam, it was complete and utter white-out; oh shit - big ears and speed bar and still going up. Hmmm - time for a spiral dive (which I'm still pretty cautious about as I get a bit dizzy), so sure enough I started spiralling and very quickly felt "spun-out"; with no reference points at all and just cloud all round me. Exited a bit too quickly and obviously got a big surge, followed by the wing diving forward - no problem as I've done SIV and immediately "caught it" but it was all a bit surreal when you can't see anything but cloud! Thank the stars, once that had all happened the mist cleared and I could see the ground again - phew!

Anyhoo, went on a glide and picked up a couple of nice steady but weakish climbs. After heading over th