Bitterly Cold at Ditchling Beacon

This morning Scott, John, Robin and I met up on the western ridge at Ditchling Beacon. We were all expecting a northerly wind, but we noticed that it also had a slightly easterly component. We had a conversation regarding our flying location but decided to try where we were. Scotty flew his Me163 Komet and I had my Wildthing, it appeared that we had an invisible wall directly in front of us as it was very difficult to get the models out into the free air that was some distance away from the slope. Once that was achieved the lift was awesome and the models flew well. Robin flew his trusty scratch-built model but found the wind was just far too strong and had a challenging time trying to get it away from the slope, but it flew well when in clear air. John launched his Phase 6 and it went up like a rocket he performed a fast fly past which was very impressive indeed. The wind speed by now was gusting between 25-30 mph and all of us found landing a difficult experience. On one occasion both John and I had to recover our models from behind the fence and Robin’s model ended up in a blackberry bush. We were joined by some full-size gliders above us flying along the ridge line also enjoying the day. John performed several exceptional approaches and landings in the challenging conditions along with Scott who coped very well with landing his Komet. By now all of us were feeling the cold and decided to call it a day. In summary a good flying day with strong challenging winds but bitterly cold.