Friday night was First Aid night, with Matt delivering an excellent talk with lots of common sense and practical solutions if we ever need to deliver some wilderness intervention. And for those who were getting excited by the weekend forecast, it was a chance to discuss options and hatch a plan to meet at Tommy central, leaving 10.30 sharp for Bodesbeck.
Come the morning, XCWeather was showing very westerly winds and the morning sky seemed very still leaving me less than convinced...but a plan is a plan. I arrived at TC bang on 10.30, just as the convoy moved out - well, Tommy and Rob (Logan had other tasks) - with Jamie & Chris racing up just as we left. Up to Potburn to park the cars and start the long walk up, when suddenly a mysterious force ferried our gliders up the hill. Magic! While waiting for the 'force' to descend before setting off together, Derek arrived to join us. Timing is everything in this game, and Derek was getting a personal lesson this day. Those extra ten minutes left him lugging his Cure up, while the rest of us wandered easily up the path.
Interestingly, there was a strong southerly (presumably thermic) breeze and little sign in the sky of the NW/W forecast. And all the way up there was not a hint of anything coming from N/W direction...until we finally hit the very summit and met a decent soarable breeze. The views out front were absolutely majestic and looking back we could see all the way to the Lakes, which showed signs of a far-reaching ground inversion to far inland. One by one we set up and set off, with little success - there were definitely thermals around but very broken and with serious sink in between. So we all stayed in close, did one or two beats and slope landed to wait for better conditions.
After parawaiting a while, Derek took the plunge and launched his Cure. My goodness, it looked good in the sky, hit a thermal and started climbing and soaring. Encouraged, he pushed out but pushed his luck and got drilled in some serious, serious sink. Down he went and game over. The rest of us waited another ten minutes, and found that the dots had started to join together. Timing again!
I found the conditions quite lumpy and hard work with lots of piloting going on, and the odd ruffle or more from above. Still, managed to work a thermal gently up to about 500 feet above take off and realised I needed to start making decisions - do I stay or go? Took the easy choice and decided I would get more height first - so pushed forward again and, of course, soon found myself back on launch. Time for some food and rest, and a grandstand view as Tommy, Rob and Jamie all climbed up, up and away over the back. Well it's definitely working then. Rob reappeared briefly and then was off on his way to fly back to Tommy's.
Thinking it was now gonna be easy, I set up again only to find it was far too strong on top launch and both me and Chris had to drop down to the lower ledge to launch. It was still strong there, but Chris got away easily and by the time I had my wing set up he was up, up, up and gone too. Launched straight into lift and staying up was not an issue - just couldn't keep with it enough to get height and away. Kept trying for another twenty or so, long enough for Jamie to reappear at launch, and two wings is better than one, and soon we both managed to climb out at opposite ends of the ridge. No difficult decisions this time, there was no way I was waiting behind after Jamie headed off - and we both took different routes towards Ettrick Pen, pausing over forestry for top ups along the way.
What about scores on the doors? Chris almost flew home to Samye Lings (got to over cassock and then a lift from Derek). Rob went for tea at Tommy's. And the three of us got up Ettrick Pen then flew back down to the cars for retrieves. Best of all, we all got a taste of our first (small) XC of the season.
Dave
