A tricky forecast resulted in several phone calls and much confusion. North. West. North West? Light or strong. So a plan was formed to meet up at Witchieknowe and see how things looked there.
There was no real intention on flying at Witchie... It's a pretty central point to our sites and has parking so is quite good to meet there. We normally fly the South face but the north face might have been an option as well as a walk along the duchess drive to Fastheugh.
On arrival Rob and Tommy were assessing the conditions to the NW and Gerald was checking out the Duchess drive. There was a bit of a breeze but the NW face of witchie seemed a tad shallow especially with 6 or 7 pilots on the hill.
So Plan A emerged... Fastheugh. Off we trotted. At the bottom we piled into Rob's VW and Tommy's toy racer and made our way up.
Got to the westerly take off to find pretty much nill wind! Rather than hang about to long or fly down we piled back into the cars and headed to the coast. It was rumored that there was supposed to be more of a breeze over there.
An hour later we were at fastcastle nr Pease bay / cockburnpath. And it seemed flyable.
Tommy was first off and felt the conditions were a tad strong so waited for things to mellow a tad. This coincided with a meeting between the heather and his glider's lines... so it was quite a good opportunity to take a break.
I practiced my ground handling. Not having flown the site before I was a tad nervous about lobbing off and encountering the sea cliffs... so managed to ground handle long enough to let Rob, Chris and the recently untangled Tommy take to the air.
All looked good so I joined them. Quite lightish conditions but it was flying :-) and not a flydown... Well for me at least.
Chris was seen scratching low and had a bit of a fight with the heather while walking back up. Tim, barry and Dave had a bit of a fly about. Rob cruised about as seems the norm on the carrera although I think he may have also had a discussion with the heather!
A nice wee fly. Maybe a tad far to go for the conditions but better than a nil wind flydown at fastheugh.
Tommy had a discussion with the farmer about access. The farmer would appreciate a call for any future flying. I don't think this has been required in the past so it's good to know for future reference.
as the sun was setting we were all packed up and heading home. Me, Tommy and chris stopped of for chips and fuel in Berwick before heading home.
A nice day out. Would be nice to get some soaring in closer to home though!
Jamie
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