Sunday morning. 8am. pretty poor visibility in Lockerbie but reports from up the country of better conditions so a plan started together on the group.
Tinto? Dungavel? Cacra? BlackKnowe Head? Mountbenger? Foulshiels? or Wichieknowe?
I kind of had my suspicions even before a decision was made.. and yep Witchieknowe it was. I don't think it's ever a bad choice but as we can drive to the top it's sometimes a lazy option. Bags get removed from cars and inertia sets in but we normally get some flying in so not complaining.
Made it to the hill just before 1 to see 4 on the SW bowl. By the time I got out of the car Tommy was soaring the bowl. Wind at the car felt strong and was more SW than South. Derek was next off but things seemed quite light.
A wee bit of a catch up. Stephen arrived. Things started to pick up. Rob, Derek, Tommy and Gerald were all off and seemed to be doing rather nicely. I started to unpack.. and then things seemed to be getting easier... and then a tad strong on the hill.
Gerald was spotted galehanging while coming in for a top landing. Bit of a vertical decent and landed fine but I ran over just in case. I've seen lots of people caught out after a strong wind landing and then get a dragging. He was close to the wall / barbed wire but landed fine and killed the glider very well.
Stephen had made it up onto the hill everyone bar Derek had landed. Derek looked quite comfortable cruising the sky. Got more interesting when he made it over to the cars. Eventually he headed out and landed down by the farm. Always thought there were bulls down in those fields but not today.
Stephen went down to pick him up. Tommy and Rob were ready to can things so walked back to the cars. Me and Gerald were not quite giving up just yet.. and things seemed to be mellowing slightly. The sky was starting to change in the distance. Ged walked down I could see Rob had packed up. I started to pack out but... it was feeling ok. Did my skyman impersonation more than once.. and it felt fine. Some stronger bits coming through but not with the same force as earlier. So instead of packing things away I set up and did a bit of ground handling.
Landed down the bottom of the bowl then decided to kite back up. Much lighter now. bundled up and went higher just to check. More flying.
Stephen walked over. Chris B took of and soared the southern face by the cars then landed short of the hill. Derek took off from there but made it to the bowl and soared up.
Felt crowded now! so had another top landing. Stephen had a nice wee flight. The sky was changing. Wind turbines to the south were very west by this point. Chris and Derek proved it was still flyable but I thought I'd see how things progressed. Direction was not so good now and slightly lighter so we all flew back to the cars.
Another nice day of flying. Patience paid off for me and got some good practice in. More please..
Jamie
