Sunny, warm, light winds… and to make up for the reduced quality flying of yesterday, we went back to Santa Brigida. There were fewer cumulus today, so we knew it wouldn’t be the booming day they had yesterday. Xevi was there and Pep and Albert had come out for a lunch break flight. It was still a little early at 2pm and they had short flights. I waited until the cycles became more marked by cold air and was first off. I thermalled up from the monastery and bumped against the inversion at 460′ ATO. I bounced along it for a while and then hit very strong sink, so went to top land. Meanwhile Geoff and Xevi had launched and were having a nice float about, getting highish at times. We flew off and on most of the afternoon and then had a chillout. We were going to drive down together, but I decided to have an evening boat about and then land at the bottom.

I love flying in evening conditions like these at Santa Brigida, when you are on your own and can just enjoy being in the air without any distractions and without having to keep a lookout. It was getting late and the sun was setting behind the ridge to the west and the wind was getting light. To stay up would involve a good scratch. I set myself the goal of staying up until Geoff had packed up his glider and driven down. Everything was bathed in a golden glow, so the scenery looked lovely in the sunset. I managed to use the last patch of ever decreasing sunshine on the ridge, and then fly close in over the trees and rocks of the cliffs near the monastery, playing with the glider and scratching close in. I achieved my goal of staying up for 33 minutes – getting flushed eventually, but landing after Geoff had parked up at the bottom. I had to pack up in the near dark.

See photos of today.

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