Clough today

[Pete Batey]

http://picasaweb.google.com/skynerd67/Clough081008#

Breezy and off to the west so a tad rough (rodeo). Wind 18mph at base.
Pete

[gary stenhouse]

some nice pics pete did you have to walk up far to get off or was it windy enough to take off from the quarry?

[Kitt Rudd]

Were there any PG's out. Myself and Mike Cav had a quick sortie to Ellerside eventually managed to break free from the site ridge but only flew back to our second retrieve vehicle (about 5km over the back).

kitt

[Pete Batey]

I had the site to myself. It was quite light at launch about 8mph but at times 45 degrees off. At one point I was thinking about packing up. The cloud shaddows were bang on though so I just waited for a thermal to bring it on. Once launched, I flew maintaining all along the cliffs through a$$ kicking rodeo turbulence to the sw facing corner which was in the sun. It wasn't working here so I turned back and flew through it all again. Launch was still in sun and I climbed out here but lift was surprizingly scattered. Once at base it was lovely and smooth and I just switched off and flew around taking photos and noticed I was above the stone circle when I looked down at a jet flying up the borrowdale valley. I canned the idea of flying onto walla knowing I hadn't notamed.
Nice little unexpected flight. I'm still trying to get to grips with this rigid. I really can't feel what the air is doing and I'm almost completely relient on the vario. Hopefully I'll start to become more sensitive to other cues through the handling/behaviour of the wing. It's quite exciting being on a steep learning curve.
Landing these things is very easy. I was expecting to be all over the show landing in a slight lee on clough by the coach road but it was so smooth I could've been landing at Lowca.
Pete

[Pete Batey]

some nice pics pete did you have to walk up far to get off or was it windy enough to take off from the quarry?

Usual take off to be certain of getting up: