Flight Logs

The Famous Five go thermalling …

Wingbeaters Tommy, Dudley, Rob, Ruth and Graham convened for a late afternoon/evening session at the Bridgend site. Ruth and Graham already heady from a Ranger led tour of the delights of the Ettrick Swamps. What a place and highly recommended.

I had it in my mind to fly today and had the kit ready to go . I decided to stay local and thought about Craighill.  Nice and local , but the South wind forecast told me to go to Witchie. 

  I hung around waiting at the house trying to do odd jobs watching the day development. 

  No wind. So I almost started to creosote the shed , I even changed my t shirt . 

Nice flight today from Witchy to the Moorfoots takeoff. Not a classic XC day, but there was a big convergence line lying over WItchy. Myself, Dudley, Fred, Tim, Will M, Graham S and Mike J were there. Later Stephen joined us. Mike and Graham left in a weak climb leaving us at the hill, but it looked like hard going and I think they did not get very far. I thought maybe we had missed our chance, but I watched Stephen go from floating about elegantly above the hill to going up quite fast and quite high. I must admit I chuckled a bit at the change in body language.

Saturday promised similar fare to friday (see previous flight log).

When Ruth and I arrived, Jamie and Rob were already at launch. Jamie was quickly into the air and blowing some cobwebs away.  Dudley and Rob were also soon getting a feel for the conditions as Derek, Fred and Ian arrived. Dave H, Dorita, Quentin and Steve also joined. Once again it did not take too long for conditions to get strong and although Fred was able to climb out he was glad to get out of a powerful thermal and guide his feet back on terra firma in Ettrickbridge.

After a few days of promising conditions up at the Moorfoots conditions turned a kind eye to Witchie Knowe. On the 16^th and 17^th April soundings pointed to plenty of thermic flight opportunities and so it came to pass.