A new Personal Best - 115km!

I think I cashed in all my luck today...

SE forecast so went to Kettlesings to find it quiet and indeed off to the S. A few others about including Bryan, Jock, Gary, Al and Craig. A few made tentative hops but it was way off to the South. Jock went down to bottom landing field, Bryan went up but drifted along hill before having to leave thermal low and then had to go and land out. Charles, Dave T, Graham, Tim etc. got up as well but only with slow climbs. One looked good so I launched to try and join them but fell out. While everyone else got back on TO, I got drilled in the bowl seting up and failed to side land, so ended up landing with Bryan.

Jock is there - do we want a lift up, Howard is there with his car? No-brainer, we all squeeze in and head back up - at least we'd get another attempt in in what was not looking such a good day: the others we managing to get short flights but were not getting height. At one stage we thought they'd be bottom landing as well. However as we got back to TO we found the wind had picked up and come more onto the hill. If anything it was now quite fresh. So no hanging around, kit back out I waited for a reasonable lull and took off.

We had a goodly gaggle thermalling up to above 1000' ATO and we drifted back. Graham and Tim headed off whilst a couple of others headed back to the ridge. I started to follow but then it seemed to me to be marginal as to whether I'd get back with reasonable height, so I turned back to find the thermal we'd been using - well nothing ventured... I soon connected with with and worked it up. Steady rather than strong but got up to 2000' ATO, and somehow caught up with Graham and Tim - well I think they were waiting up near base, which was good of them. Then the next bit of luck as I headed out on glide to a cloud in the distance. Graham flying above and a little beyond turns around and yells down at me to head for a cloud near by. Turning I see, yup it does indeed look good and much closer. Tim up there as well - so I followed.

I didn't make as much of it as the others, so the next section was hard going as I got low while they managed to stay high. However although lift was weak, so was the sink and I just kept working what I could with drifting bubbles. Although it seemed slow going, we go the Leominster, so it was already a good XC for me. Now Bryan, Iain and one other came overhead like the clappers. A cloud street had formed overhead and they were cruising it, catching Graham and Tim up. Just beyond Leominster I picked up a good thermal and was soon up under the cloud: base was only ~4200' at best. All the others were a way in front of me but that just marked out the sky. It wasn't long before I'd caught up as folk dived from one side of the street to the other, finding the lift and then sink to avoid (mostly) going into cloud. It was all pretty easy now with good ground speed and barely the need to turn in thermals at times. Really enjoyed flying over the wind-farms around Newtown though felt the need to concentrate on the flying so no photos I'm afraid. :-(

The big northern mountains of Wales were looming as I saw 98km come up on the GPS. My first 100km flight was in the bag! I went on glide to one final lee-side thermal, but found ground speed was now up to 70kph. Going on was not going to be sensible. The valley ahead (going down to Aberdovy) runs E-W so rotor was in my mind, but it is relatively wide and I figured a valley wind blowing toward the coast would be there. Although I considered running down the valley to the coast (in fact Graham did this a little later), I figured the best thing to do was land in the biggest field not crossed by power lines (and there are a lot around there!). Good move. There was indeed a valley wind. I was barely penetrating and of course got picked up a couple of times as thermals broke off (fence looking close...) A safe touch down leaving me to watch the others flying over only to get pinned on the north side of the valley, barely penetrating with full-bar. Tim and Graham squirted off side-slipping towards the coast, Iain managed to get into the same field as I was in, and Bryan one field down.

Six of us has made the ton together in all (the sixth, Simon I think, has landed about 5km earlier). Graham had landed by the train station - handy. Thanks to some hunting about by Tim, we got a taxi to get us right back to the car-park at Kettlesings - well worth it. The pint with Graham, Iain, and Mark back at the Malvern Hill Hotel barely touched the sides. What a brilliant day! Flight details here.