We woke up, closed the conference, smiled at a lot of the good feedback and then decided what to do with the day. As is always my luck, when I am really looking forward to something, then it gets messed up. And so it was today. I was too ill to fly.

We went to Bellmunt, where there was a light SSW breeze and we met a few people already there. One of them had a model airplane and was checking out the thermal strength. It seemed to be working fine and they got ready. The first guy off flew through a thermal, but then got another in the valley and got back up high above the ridge. Geoff launched and thermalled his way along the ridge and topped out at 1500′ ATO. He could have got higher, but pulled out of the climb to head back to the front. Conditions were typical spring thermals – strong and a bit bouncy. An excellent day’s flying, though, plenty of thermals, easy to stay up, nice cumulus development. Big sink in between. After an hour or so, he went out to land. The only minor problem with Belmunt is that it is not top landable, being a tiny take-off, in the middle of trees.

I went for a short walk up to the monastery to enjoy the views and then drove the car down to collect Geoff. We considered driving back to Santa Brigida for a quick sausage and to say ‘hi’ to all our friends, but I wasn’t really feeling up to it, so instead we sat in the sun with a picnic and beer.

See photos of today.

And here’s what we missed at the Aplec – see Johnny’s video.

No comments yet - please add one »