A Devils Dyke day...finally

So the forecast on Wednesday 24th looked good for the harting dyke run along the south downs. Nev had a bit of a dither over Commbe Gibbet but opted for Harting in the end.

Arriving early it's a quick start when the clouds get going around 11am.  Unfortunately i'd forgotten how my rather old task was set up and just turned right after take off.  Finding lift I started to thermal up and head down ridge.  This will come back to haunt me later as I needed to have gone at least 50 metres more into wind after take off.

Climbs are good heading east with one hitting 5.7 m/s on the averager. Harness has started playing up again. It's really hard to get my head down limiting the speed I can pull on glides. To make it worse as soon as I raise myself to look ahead it's dropping back to the heads up position so I have to work hard to get back to head down again. More work needed on the adjustment system.

Low point is at Steyning the final gap before the Dyke.  Had gone upwind to a cloud but didn't find anything so headed backed towards the hill and a newly formed cloud. Fortunately the core is at the edge of the town close to the potential bomb out fields.

Plenty of pgs at the previous section and even more at the dyke with a single HG in the bottom landing. Nev is above me as he's returning from his turn point to the east of the Dyke.

Nev heads on back whilst I look for some more height and wait for another cloud on the far side of the gap to glide towards.  Return journey was fairly simple with best climb of the flight being 6.4 m/s on the averager and some sustained glides in lift.

Slight panic when the instruments warn about the airspace so I have to go fast to keep out of the clouds and stay below the 4500' ceiling.

The compeo finally gives a warbles for the first time after I've flown into the cylinder that I missed at the start of the flight. Note to self check task before using in future in case it needs additional amendments as my library of presets is rather old and probably needs reviewing.

A good landing on the edge of one of the low bramble patches is the perfect end to an enjoyable flight even if some of the flying was quite punchy and included my first time weightless in the UK after many years.

A valid out and return but no pre declared score due to a 50m oversight at the start.

Another mere day

So tried to use the new camera today despite being fully charged it lasted a whole 9 minutes whilst I stood watching the pgs at ridge height. Hmmm.

Managed a flight a little later only 750 ATO and some what shorter than Mondays but pleasant despite having to work my way up past 10pgs in the bowl.

When it turned off decided not to risk mixing in the bowl with all the blandness and went on for a quick to landing.

Must say this new sail and my weight loss make for far easier landings than previously.

Mere Monday 21st March 2022

After failing to get airborne on Sunday decided to go Mere today despite the SE forecast.

On arrival the wind was only just south of East. Eventually it came back to SE and a few pgs started flying fairly late.

Turned out it was nicely bouyant once up and slowly managed to climbed to 1400 ATO for about an hour of pleasant flying.

Winching South Cerney Friday 18th March 2022

Richard Hunt has started a HG winch group operating at South Cerney with Birdwings.

Agreed to act as test pilot for training of new winch operator and to get myself current with winching again 

3 good tows and some mucking around with tow bridles ensued.

First flight was bouyant but the other two were in fairly solid sink.

Sunday Aerotow

Had a good flight last Sunday shame about all the cloud made for very slow going.

Flight here

The game is afoot Watson...

Day 1 and CuNimbs forecast later so it's a quick early task from the lower hill at Fossato di Vico.  Funny enough right above the town where Hamish and I are staying.

The task is here

Results here when they are out.

Essentially one very quick ridge run with a last turnpoint in the valley before goal.

Livetrack

Just in case people don't know here is my id on livetrack where you can follow my flights as they happen.

http://www.livetrack24.com/user/REDTIP