Sunday 12th July 2015
A new full time job and normally in single Dad mode at the weekends, flying is pretty much restricted now to competitions, or the occasional bit of dual flying with the boys.
But today Sunday, a day off. Predicatbly the forecast was looking pretty grim.
Not to be deterred and keen to maximise the opportunity I scoured the forecasts, looking for a window to get airborne. 15-25mph SW, RASP indicating lift between 0 and 400fpm, and a cloud-base between 1000 and 4000', plus rain. Hmm. Not too much to get excited about. One glimmer of hope: there seemed to be a spell of "better" weather between 12 and 2pm.... All I wanted was a clear window to take off and embark on a short XC. Decision made. Milk Mountain, here I come.
Not unexpectedly I was the only one at the hill bar a walkers car parked at the top. The wind was blowing a steady 15mph up the slope and not too gusty - good Milk conditions. I rigged at the lower take off but by the time I was sorting the instruments out, the wind had picked up in strength and gustiness. Looking south west towards Westbury, the sky seemed brighter, with an acceptable cloud base. To the West, there were signs of rain which would easily pass the area by. All ready to go, I sat it out for a while, waiting for the conditions to settle back again. After twenty minutes, and having asked a passing walker to watch me off, I clipped in, and with a couple of steps was up and away from the hill.
Lumpy. Very lumpy. Thankfully there was plenty of punchy lift in amongst the turbulent air, and I quickly gained 400'. Thinking that it might be safer to push forward on to the White Horse face with more open landing areas, I pulled on speed and glided cross wind to the ridge but was not rewarded with better air.
After a while exploring the ridge, and contemplating a run down to Martinsell, but I was not convinced there was enough South in the wind to enable a ridge run. I retreated back to the bowl and immediately climbed again. Up and down. Up and down. It was a bit of a roller coaster. The trees on the hill were thrashing about, so I pushed forward to the White Horse again. Nope, no better, so I retreated once more to the bowl. It was becoming apparent that I was having to fly very fast to keep my position over the ground and occasionally was being sunk out to ridge height. With rain now directly approaching, I was becoming uncomfortable with the flying conditions so decided it was time to land. Unfortunately I was running out of safe landing options. No to the potential rotor in the bottom landing, no to the designated top landing with upwind trees, and not enough height to push on to the south ridge again and the large open fields. So I opted to make an "emergency" landing in the larger "in crop" top landing field, aiming for the mowed path by the fence, and in sight of a group of walkers on the Ridgeway. A quick downwind leg and I was fighting to keep the glider straight as pulled in speed to clear the fence at the back of the field. Pulling hard on the left upright I just managed to touch down before I got turned out of wind. I had missed my spot by about 5 feet. I could not rerig fast enough to beat the onslaught of rain. And boy did it rain. A proper downpour. Good job I wasn't still flying.
Oh well, it might not have been an epic flying day, but just for a short, sweet, amount of time I had escaped in to the world of free flight... It does your soul the world of good!
A new full time job and normally in single Dad mode at the weekends, flying is pretty much restricted now to competitions, or the occasional bit of dual flying with the boys.
But today Sunday, a day off. Predicatbly the forecast was looking pretty grim.
Not to be deterred and keen to maximise the opportunity I scoured the forecasts, looking for a window to get airborne. 15-25mph SW, RASP indicating lift between 0 and 400fpm, and a cloud-base between 1000 and 4000', plus rain. Hmm. Not too much to get excited about. One glimmer of hope: there seemed to be a spell of "better" weather between 12 and 2pm.... All I wanted was a clear window to take off and embark on a short XC. Decision made. Milk Mountain, here I come.
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| The view from Milk. Not too bad... |
Not unexpectedly I was the only one at the hill bar a walkers car parked at the top. The wind was blowing a steady 15mph up the slope and not too gusty - good Milk conditions. I rigged at the lower take off but by the time I was sorting the instruments out, the wind had picked up in strength and gustiness. Looking south west towards Westbury, the sky seemed brighter, with an acceptable cloud base. To the West, there were signs of rain which would easily pass the area by. All ready to go, I sat it out for a while, waiting for the conditions to settle back again. After twenty minutes, and having asked a passing walker to watch me off, I clipped in, and with a couple of steps was up and away from the hill.Lumpy. Very lumpy. Thankfully there was plenty of punchy lift in amongst the turbulent air, and I quickly gained 400'. Thinking that it might be safer to push forward on to the White Horse face with more open landing areas, I pulled on speed and glided cross wind to the ridge but was not rewarded with better air.
After a while exploring the ridge, and contemplating a run down to Martinsell, but I was not convinced there was enough South in the wind to enable a ridge run. I retreated back to the bowl and immediately climbed again. Up and down. Up and down. It was a bit of a roller coaster. The trees on the hill were thrashing about, so I pushed forward to the White Horse again. Nope, no better, so I retreated once more to the bowl. It was becoming apparent that I was having to fly very fast to keep my position over the ground and occasionally was being sunk out to ridge height. With rain now directly approaching, I was becoming uncomfortable with the flying conditions so decided it was time to land. Unfortunately I was running out of safe landing options. No to the potential rotor in the bottom landing, no to the designated top landing with upwind trees, and not enough height to push on to the south ridge again and the large open fields. So I opted to make an "emergency" landing in the larger "in crop" top landing field, aiming for the mowed path by the fence, and in sight of a group of walkers on the Ridgeway. A quick downwind leg and I was fighting to keep the glider straight as pulled in speed to clear the fence at the back of the field. Pulling hard on the left upright I just managed to touch down before I got turned out of wind. I had missed my spot by about 5 feet. I could not rerig fast enough to beat the onslaught of rain. And boy did it rain. A proper downpour. Good job I wasn't still flying.
Oh well, it might not have been an epic flying day, but just for a short, sweet, amount of time I had escaped in to the world of free flight... It does your soul the world of good!
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