A Great Afternoon's Flying

Wolstonbury Hill came up with the goods again!

Unfortunately Geoff didn't make it but he's keen to come over another time.

I got up there around 2.30pm. Another flyer from Dorking, Ralph, was already there:

Very friendly bloke - gave me some good tips and generally we had a nice natter. He had a couple of models up there - the Flair glider shown above, and a real floater got from eBay for £28!

Ralph wasn't sure what it is, but it flew really well. Anyone recognise it?

The conditions were variable - the lift at times was so good that the gliders specked-out. I was flying the Stargazer - it really loved the better lift, but struggled in some of the light lift periods - I really must get the Algebra finished!

One of the things I've loved about soaring is the challenge of keeping the glider up in marginal conditions. It was great today, struggling at times to keep the glider in the air and then experienceing the reward when it climbed several hundred feet above the slope.

Wolstonbury is so picturesque:

Ralph's dog Toby loved it:

All in all a great afternoon's flying!

I had over 2 hrs of stick time. The last half-hour I just threw the Spectre around. What larks!