The last month has been pretty pants weather wise. Thursday evening looked like there might be a chance for some flying as / when the wind dropped.
Parts of the country had a bit of a sea breeze but there was no sign of it (?) so we headed to Witchieknowe.
Dave Hutchinson was first to arrive. Wind was way to strong so he parked up and had a wee knap.
Chris and I arrived about 6.25. got out of the car and woooahhh a tad windy! so we went round to where dave was parked.
We weren't sure was in the car initially. then I saw a foot on the dashboard. so we snuck up behind the car and gave it a good shake.
Dave seemed a little bit startled and disorientated. I think he was in a bit of a deep sleep!
We headed back to the top and the wind was feeling ok. 5 min faffing about and it was all good.
The plan was to have some tandem practice with Dave and Chris. I went first as pilot. Dave as passenger and Chris doing an excellent job as ground crew.
Chris M turned up and did some ground handling and a wee fly down.
Tandem wise we managed a couple of nice wee flights. well. Short take off and slope landing style flights. The wind continued to drop off.
It would have been nice to have soared but it got too light
Chris B had a short flight. 6 or 7 beats close in to the hill but steadily getting lower.
Stephen W turned up just as the wind died completely :-(
In a last dash attempt to get another flight in Me, Chris and Dave went up to the SW bowl. Dave Took his tandem - planning to do a bit of ground handling and maybe fly down on it himself.
No wind.
I set up for a forward launch with Chris as a passenger. We launched and seconds later we were landing. slightly faster than I wanted.
We went up for another go but the slight breeze from the East / South East put me off. Not ready for another attempt at forward launching a tandem glider with a back wind just yet!
By the time we got back to the cars Stephen and Chris M had left.
The south easterly breeze almost tempted us to head up the SE bowl but it was 9.30.
A good evening tandem practice for me. Some airtime for the other guys but slightly disapointing the wind dropped off so quickly.
Jamie
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