Sunday 20th June - Westbury

 
Sunday saw a fair contingent of skysurfers at Westbury, with a forecast of better sun & thermals in the West. Unfortunately the wind was just east of north (not north as forecast), and being 5-6 mph this made it very difficult to get started. After two landings by the trig point (Yikes), I connected properley on the third flight and set off XC. The lift didn't feel quite as good as RASP precited, and at Warminster I nearly turned back, but the lack of clouds around Westbury and the seemingly better ones off to the south I continued.
 
The flight turned into a 74 miles out and return. 
 
The flight downwind was uneventful, but I was wary that getting to Dorechester in an hour meant that there was quite a lot of wind at Height (showing 15-17mph in Bell hill area) and I nearly considered landing at Dorchester to the train back (even considered heading towards Exeter where the train line retruns to Westbury). Still, I set off back northwards, hoping I wouldnt land in boonie-land between Dorchester/Blandford. Once north of Blandford I followed the hills northwards, shadowing the A350 in case I needed to hitch back (wasn't confident about the day). Passing Shaftesbury the wind up aloft had dropped to beneath 10mph which was making life wasier, but with no clouds it was now roulette. I got low near the A303, and again adjacent to the gliding club near Mere, managed to glide on to Warminister where a landing seemed certain. Then, at 5:25-ish, lift started to bubble (I'm very low on the outskirts), and after 7-ish miniutes of the thermal growing and doing whatever they do, it then let rip and gave me the 4000ft I needed to glide the final 5 miles back to Westbury, landed 5 minutes short of 6pm, knackered after 5.5 hours in the air.

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