Tinto in an easterly (or even a south easterly) is never a good option, so it was a difficult decision for Tuesday. A possible option was Ettrick Pen, but as forecasts suggested wind would veer to S by early afternoon and SW by early evening we decided to head for Tinto. Another factor was the RASP thermal indicator showing it had the darkest red patches in the whole of the UK - but then again that is never correct is it? Airspace issues make heading north from Tinto complicated, but conditions seemed to suggest a triangle might be feasible down to Abington services.
On arrival at midday conditions were very light on the ground and almost zero sunshine due to the extensive cloud cover. I spotted two birds above the farm, and with a combination of circling and energetic flapping they were up, up and away. Once up the hill there were some strong cycles coming from SE and SW, making launch and then staying up quite tricky. Tommy was first off, and scratched his way up the hill with the occasional big climb. There was plenty of lift around but gathered in little pockets with lots of sink in between. Dudley and myself followed soon after - you could stay up, but only by working quite hard at times. You could feel there was something there and it was just out of reach so we spent 10-15 minutes soaring into and out of lift. Then I found a bit of a climb just above the trees, hung with it and found myself getting up higher into the cleaner air where the thermals were more established. After a few 360s I pointed into wind to move away from the hill and got the beep-beep in my ear. Nice! Kept pushing forwards and the beeps kept coming, all the way to 2800 feet and already across the road towards Dungavel. There was a clear cloud street all the way to Abgington and beyond so that was the decision and I pushed on, occasionally trying to thermal when the beeps got strong, otherwise just pointing myself to the next cloud.
This all worked perfectly and I was soon beyond Dungavel at 3800 feet and well on my way to Abington. The triangle was definitely on, especially as the return leg would be downwind. Of course, that was when my cloud street started decaying and it was all sink. I could see a much better street to the west but would have been a gamble to push straight across that far, so decided to retrace backwards (where the lift had been) and try to edge across. Spent the next twenty minutes bimbling around finding and losing lift, trying to get into a better place until I got to my critical height (2400 feet) - that was min I calculated for returning to the hill and closing the triangle - and then pushed downwind back to the hill.
On the way back I saw all the other wings, that had been struggling before, now all sky high above the ridge and heading off on their own little triangles and adventures. I was tired and cold (it was freezing in the air) so just landed and watched wagga Tommy doing his stuff. Thirty minutes later it dropped right off, leaving us with an extended fly down, grabbing any bubbles from the trees before landing. Of course, Dudley had other ideas, launched a few minutes after us and went up and up, needing big ears to get down. Strange, but excellent, day. Thermals without sunshine, Tinto without Big Tinto and my first (very small) triangle.
