A satisfying struggle.........

Another one of those 'not a clue where to fly' days. Wind was forecast to be variable but between 5 - 10mph. Well that was a lie! Max wind speed must have been around 3mph. Anyway, Ian and I ended up at Firle Beacon. Lots of Paragliders  and Hangliders sitting on the floor or packing away when we arrived. We wandered over to the main Paraglider launch site and said hello to the guys just standing around chatting. Ian launched his Blaster for a few quick flights and I gave my Xpro a mammoth chuck out into the completely dead air for a circuit.

Then we walked along to the usual model flying bowl where Ian had a little more joy with his DLG but nothing special so we carried on over the stile and along to the next bowl which neither of us had ever flown at. Lined with trees and bushes to our left and just a small clearing and open route in for a quick landing ahead of us. This bowl would have been more into wind if there was any!

You may have noticed our main blog banner has changed to this image of Ian's Blaster 3.

Ian was flying his Blaster and just about hanging in there and on occasions the sheep below us would fart and a tiny bubble of rising methane would get you another metre of altitude. Well this was enough to try out the superb glide of my 3.6m Xpro. The first launch was out round and down. The next was a wee bit longer and in the end I managed to get all the way up to 39m above launch height. Wohooo! Watch out for the ice on the wings..........It was hugely satisfying to able to float around in what felt like no wind trying very hard not to lose any height on the turns and eking out every little drop off sheep fart thermal you could. Ian was flying his heavier Super Starlight at the time and he was doing just as well as me but carrying far more weight. You can't beat a really good battle to stay up!

We wandered back over the stile to find two other glider guiders standing around. They launched a powered glider which did need it motor on many occasion's. Ian couldn't resist showing him how it should be done with his DLG. Another difficult soaring day but a very satisfying struggle to stay airborne.