25th Feb 2009
Well After a layoff from flying for about 18months due to various reasons I’ve decided that this year I will put much more into getting out and getting my feet in the air as much as reasonably possible.
My first flight of the year was at the Westbury White Horse site in Wiltshire. This was also another first in that I’ve never flown this site before. As I arrived the wind was quite strong and although may have be flyable would have been very uncomfortable for my first flight in such a long time. I thought that while I was here I would familiar with the site. A couple of other pilot were on hand for a site briefing so I took advantage of the opportunity to get to know the lay of the land.
At times the wind would lull and the smoke on the cement factory chimney indicated flyable conditions. After about 1 1/2 hours of waiting around the wind had definitately dropped to a more managable condition. So we decided to go for it.
What followed was a superb hour of mainly laminar soaring and a great way to ease myself back into the harness. The wind did start to strengthen again though and at about the time I had decided to land to warm up I suddenly got pinned by a strong gust of wind by the spur. I was quite close to the ground and not making any headway so I flew away from the spur and run with the wind for a short distance to get out of the compression zone and landed further back. It meant a walk back up but that was the lesser of the two evils.
The wind remained too strong for any further flying but I was more than happy with the results of the day.