The forecast hinted that there might be a chance of evening flying at Newark Hill so a plan was hatched to meet at the bottom for 16:30. A bit of miscommunication meant that Stephen made it to the bottom just after 17:00.
Me and Rob were first up the top via the Duchess Drive to find light (very light) WNW wind. Stephen and Tim then joined us.
Wind speed started to feel better and Rob was first off. He soared slowly down the hill and along to the nose where he appeared to do better (we could see the top of the wing but not a lot more)
I faffed, ground handled and then as the breeze seemed to improve took off. air felt ok and soared along to the nose and back. My camera fell off into the pod so I landed to sort things out.
After I had sorted things out I spotted Stephen launching and going up. so thought.. well done. Tim was off not long after. I almost re-launched but thought it might be a bit crowded so would hang fire for a minute or two.
Stephen seemed to be climbing and was looking pretty good. Tim had a bit of a wobble and then...WHOOOOSH the wind picked up around me. Stephen looked ok but Tim was tracking back to the hill. Then there was a hint of backwards and he was down safe.
Windspeed had trebled in 3 or 4 minutes. Stephen was still looking fine where he was but I think he noticed we were all on the ground so pushed forward. Then realised he didn't have a huge forward speed.
Speed bar and big ears got him down eventually. Adrenalin (?) and motion sickness meant he didn't really enjoy the latter part of the flight but coped pretty well and landed down the bottom.
I think the motion sickness took a while to dissipate. Stephen was still a tad pale by the time we got down the bottom.
When we were down we spotted signs of wave in the sky which explained the change in conditions. The site is known for wave conditions in a NW'ly and this evening was a valuable reminder.
The site does look great so we'll try to look at it again sometime.
Jamie
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