A jolly good reason to move to Dorset?

On our last family holiday to Dorset I spotted an excellent slope near where we were staying, so this year I fitted a roof box and took a bundle of models, the luggage went inside and the family came in grandma's car. The roof box is about 50 inches long, so that limited my selection to small and split-wing gliders - still, I found six models that fitted the box.
First we looked at the west-facing Portland cliffs accessible from Grangecroft car park. They looked promising with a good landing area north of the car park:

I hadn't flown from cliffs before and as there was nothing else in the air except birds I decided to let discretion be the better part of valour and leave this spot for a future excursion.

Maiden Castle hill near Dorchester appealed as a good all-rounder, i.e. it should suite all wind directions. When I arrived there was a brisk south-westerly blowing and I positioned myself accordingly.  The problem is the ramparts - as I threw the model it passed over a very deep ditch before the first rampart, I guess the wind formed a powerful vortex because the model sank straight down into the ditch. So I scrambled down and up to the first rampart and tried again with much better results. I achieved a few short flights but the retrievals always involved more scrambling which was tiresome and risky.

A few days later the wind swung round to the south, the sun shone once more and I was given leave to try another slope. Ringstead Ridge this time which overlooks the bay where we stayed. I was very impressed; this National Trust hilltop has a long free-parking area to the left of the track, while on the right side of the track is the launch site! The wind was reported as 8-9mph southerly, which was fine for this SSW facing slope. Fortunately this was Thursday, at the weekends there is a lot of hang/paragliding activity, but on this afternoon there was just me and this guy with an R/C foamy chuck-glider conversion from Lidl. A very satisfying three hours ensued. It's a near perfect spot, the only thing to worry about (according to my companion) is the prevalence of ticks in the long grass, so sturdy boots and trousers are recommended to avoid the risk of Lyme disease.



 That's the Isle of Portland on the horizon. As Slopehunter suggests the lift is smooth as it blows up off the sea...

 

Happy landings

 

Russell H