I had it in my mind to fly today and had the kit ready to go . I decided to stay local and thought about Craighill. Nice and local , but the South wind forecast told me to go to Witchie.
I hung around waiting at the house trying to do odd jobs watching the day development.
No wind. So I almost started to creosote the shed , I even changed my t shirt .
But then in the early afternoon it happened...a breeze.
Arrived at the top of Witchie to find a fairly strong breeze. I could see a good number of birds enjoying the lift , well spread out over the entire arena.
A quick sniff at the breeze and I decided to head across to the SW bowl.
I set up low and launched . An easy scratch up and I was on top. Initially I kept in over the top doing small wingovers and keeping options open for a top landing . After a bit of this I felt the wind go South so I pushed out into the lift and headed over to the small south face lifting all the time . Felt ok so I kept going and arrived on the crags on the big hill . Nice and lifty. A buzzard was observed skimming along the SE shallow face and soon joined in tucking in behind me watching my every move.
Good easy lift verging on strong at times. I decided not to top land up there . After a while I could see showers coming down developing up the Ettrick valley . I decided to wait until I actually felt it before crossing back to the car.
Seemed to take ages to arrive and I kept looking for Tim's car as he was supposed to be coming out but no sign . I eventually made a move to jump back across to the small face . Plenty of lift going across and as I arrived with good height in front of the small hill I could feel the unmistakable feeling of a climb nearby. Nice fat 2mtr climb duly arrived and I started to s turn initially before getting real with a good tight 360. It was the best lift of the day but the shower was getting closer and I was approaching the grey room around 1200ft above the car.
I had no desire to enter that place today so a hasty retreat and spiral down . I was wondering about wind strength on the top beside the car and plan B was to possibly land in the bottom of the SW bowl but I went in for a probe and it felt ok so I swooped in beside the van and packed before the shower arrived.
The only thing missing was you guys.
But then Tim turned up.....only he can add his part. (and he has - here: https://www.wingbeat-paragliding.co.uk/index.php/flying-log/378-the-not-so-lone-gun
Tommy.
