Lovely looking day. Northy was on North Barrule in the morning he reported very light winds, bouyant .
When weatherjack starts to get excited I start to get excited. Very strong thermals till 6pm he promised and so with that myself and Swalesey cashed in some brownie points and got ourselves to the top of Sartfell for a 5pm take off. The sky had looked awesome all day but now looked cloudless, there was however a 6mph to 15 mph gusty breeze showing that there was still thermals about.
As soon as my feet left the ground it felt very bumpy, which was a little disconcerting being so low and so rusty. Up, down, lift, sink all very small and punchy. Saw Swalesey take off and do a bit better and then connect with something decent over the Gulley I headed that way connecting with a steady 2 m/s up trying to stay with the now circling Swalesey Soon we were circling over the snow covered back of the hill…,, where I fell out of it at 150M ATO. Swalesey carried onwards and upwards, I headed back to the hill ending up at 100m ato keeping half an eye on the, by now, tiny Phil.
Eventually something came through that got me to 140m ato and I decided to go for it towards Kirk Michael. Beautiful views of the remaining snow compensating for my lack of progress. Waffled near the gorge behind Giles’s till a sheep’s fart came through giving me a zero over the gorge towards the dog kennels below Slui Curn. Landed a field further down for 3.28km.
Swalesey landed along the Druidale road in very rough and windy conditions for 4 km. Martin has also found this area turbulent if its at all windy. So I suspect my route to the low lands is the safer of the two.
Jamie then came and picked myself and Swalesey up. By the time we got back to the hill a bank of high cloud had come in and it looked a completely different day. Myself and Phil had to get back to the nappies .. Jamie, Chris and Ean hiked up but found it blown out, So I guess we got lucky.
Thanks to Jamie again, lovely thermals..big and smooth 2-3 up, great flying, great views.