Local flying

Friday September  18 /09

 

Started off at Whitewool  about 09 30hrs. It was blowing too hard for me but Mike Shippam gave it a go as he does.

 

We took a look at Mercury, it was lighter there which is unusual but does happen occasionally.

A hang glider had a brief flight then flew down and walked back, this was Matt W. He called it a day. Wise man.

Two other HG pilots were also at Mercury ,Brian P and Tim King. Paragliders were flying of sorts but poor lift.

Meantime Brian had rigged and moved to the take-off area. At this point I decided to return to Whitewool so don't know how Brian fared. I assume not very well?

 

Whitewool was calming down a tad but it wasn't flyable until 4-30pm. then everyone wanted to be in the air which wasn't so good as the lift was marginal.. There was a full house (8 pilots) with a sprinkling of red ribbons.Most managed some flying. Jason Smith had the best flight managing to fly over the trees at the North end of the slope. I left at 5-30pm and some were still boating about milking the last half hour. Not a brilliant day but better than nothing.

 

Treats of the day

Just after I arrived at 09-30hrs  the Red Arrows flew over and a Chinook came over the back VERY low. It dropped out of sight into the bowl at Old Winchester Hill. I also flew very close to a kestrel. Nice one.    Shippo