Yes, there was flying at Tinto South yesterday evening (Thursday). Six paragliders got into the air, I was the only Wingbeat representative.
I turned up in my slightly unsuitable small sports car, wedged in alongside my paraglider. I thought it wise not to drive my old Nissan X Trail as the last time I parked it the rear brakes were on fire (little problem with a seized handbrake/ drum/shoes issue).
Dave started talking about doing some club socials and picked the 22nd as the date and the Gordon Arms (partially rebuilt but up and running again after last years fire). Initial plan was for 8 / 8.30 meetup to allow for some flying but due to the long range forecast being a tad strong that was brought forward to 7pm.
Guess what... Yep. Forecast speed dropped and it was flyable.
Forecast was for a high pressure / light wind sunny day. Rumor of inversion around 3000ft so a 'Blue Day' to make things interesting.
Reports from Broughton for the 19th with quite spring conditions were contrasted with Dungavel being frustratingly light. Having negotiated the day off I agreed to meet up with DaveH and do some tandem practice. Had a few interesting discussions regarding suitability of flying tandems on a thermic day but as both me and Dave are (relatively) grown ups we decided we'd take the concerns on board and make an assessment on the hill based on the actual conditions and not those of a different hill and different day.
Initially 4 of us Tommy, Rob, Chris, and myself met at the farm around 11:45, and I think that we were joined later by Andrew and Dave Hutch. The sky looked perfect, lovely and sunny out front with lots of blue and a very nice build up of the white fluffy stuff. It did have all the makings of a classic XC day even if base was estimated at 4,500ft. Well when I was walking up the north west shoulder I felt a breeze at the back of me and I started to have my doubts that this was the wrong site for the day, however having a chat with the others on top they were all convinced that we were in the right place so I put down to being a thermal. That was the first sign of things to come and it wasn’t going to be the day we all envisaged.
The usual swithering on teh phone to Tommy got things to do...might over develop...wind uncertain and light....and so on. We decided to reassess at 9:45. At 9:45 it still looked good. Light SW going S and nothing on the forecasts to say OD. On Derek's advice not to over think it, we headed for Broughton and met Fred there for the walk up the hill. This had the usual discussion on the nature of existence and the ultimate purpose of mankind and so on.
