During the days leading up to Thursday it looked like there was a chance for some evening flying at Singlie. It sounded like half the club was going to head along which would have been nice although the hill is quite small!
As Thursday passed there seemed to be less enthusiasm for flying / wind so it was only me, Tim and Barry that made it along to the hill.
XC weather (and other wether sites) implied that it might be a tad strong and there was confusion at one point as to things turning southerly (as forcast and experienced briefly at drumalbin around 4pm)
10 minutes got us to take off where there was a bit of a southerly element to the breeze. or maybe it was south westerly. It felt slightly off to the south.
I was first to get my glider above my head ground handling and almost launched on a couple of occasions but pod - foot issues meant I was faffing.
It felt ok ground handling but my faffing about was entertaining Tim and getting in the way for Barry. So much so that when I killed the glider Barry was up and away. Unfortunately that coincided with a lull so Barry ended up maintaining slightly then soaring down the hill.
Once he had disappeared me and Tim were slightly less motivated to try.. we wanted to go UP instead of DOWN!
I moved from where we were to the other side of the gully and it felt ok. Almost launched then the wind dropped again (probably thermal cycles although it was almost 8pm by that point) so ended up working my way up to the top of the bowl. Again it felt ok but had foot - pod issues (must sort that out!) so I aborted the launch.
The breeze dropped again. So back up tot he top and ready to forward launch and fly down. I was ready to go when Tim joined me. and the breeze came back so reverse launch.. pod issues sorted in the air and soared about for 5 min. As I had faffed with the pod I lost the lift a bit so didn't make the most of things.
Tim joined me in the air but it felt quite tight in the light lift so I headed off towards the cairn and landed. Tim slope landed and went back to the top to have another go and in the meantime Barry had made it to the top and flew / soared down the hill.
Tim joined us at the bottom not long after.
A pleasant evening out of the house. some exercise and even a wee bit of flying. Must sort out getting into the pod (again!)
Spotted a couple of deer fording the river when we got back tot he car which was quite kewl to see.
Jamie
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