The forecast looked really good today, with the MGC guys giving the day a 3-4. There was a chance of it getting blown out in the afternoon, so we met up with Kai, Mike and Andy early on and headed to Bache. There were wave bars everywhere on the way there and significant high cirrus too. What was fine was the wind strength. It was quite sinky to start with (a few of us had to walk back up the hill after failing to get up), but conditions improved. Mark L. and Kai could have got away at one point, but chose not to.

On my second flight I got lower than I ever have without bottom landing, and I had to scratch my way back up. After the ribbing I had on the hill for going down yesterday, there was no way I was going to do that again a second day running. There was a little bubble of lift that seemed like a thermal but it needed to release from the hill.  I worked and worked it, until it popped off, and let me climb back up above launch. Kai joined the thermal, but when he stopped circling, I dived for the top landing. I was very pleased indeed to be back up.

I had a break, chatting to Andy and Kai when the conditions finally got good and everyone had great flights, Richard Worley heading out front and Mark L. headed way off to the west, but everyone chose to stay local and not go over the back. I was being lazy and Kai was spaced out from being jet lagged after arriving from Australia the day before. He wasn’t going to fly again, but we agreed to try and do something interesting, with me coming up with the task once in the air. It seemed windier in the air and my first plan was to go west to the big knob, until I decided that there might be a big venturi effect in the gap. I got a bit of a kicking above the gully to the west, so decided to fly to the other end of the ridge to the east and then think about plans again. Everyone seemed to have landed except Steve Lowe, and as I headed to the gully to the east, I got a strongish thermal. Kai came in above me and we climbed up. I lost it at 880′ ATO, but had let myself drift too far over the trees. I turned back but was going backwards and losing height! Time to cut and run, although I wouldn’t normally ever have considered going over the back at that altitude. I lost more height on the glide across the valley, but picked up the thermal (which Kai was helpfully marking above me) again and successfully crossed the next ridge. Oh, well, might as well go XC then…

We picked up another thermal in the next valley, but I was having trouble centering and felt I wasn’t thermalling well. I saw some birds climbing over the village of Llangunllo and headed there, but couldn’t make the most of the broken lift. I checked out the wind direction and landed next to the river about 500 yards outside the village. Kai came and landed with me to make the retrieve easier. Once we looked at a map, we could see that we were only one ridge short of the valley where his sister lives and had I had the prospect of tea and cake as an incentive, I would have made the effort with the thermal and tried to fly there.

There’s no mobile signal in the valley, the pub’s been closed for years and you need a card (obtainable in Knighton!) to use the public phone. However, the lovely gentleman who is refurbishing the pub let me use their phone (and gave me a tour of the place). It will be opening in 2 months and it will make bombing behind Bache a far more pleasurable experience.

Geoff writes: I was going to fly again, before going off to pick up Judith and Kai, and was on launch ready to go, but the wind picked up suddenly, and stayed very strong. The people still in the air had some problems getting down, especially Luke, who used big ears till just above the ground, then let  go to land, so popped up again, then big ears, then let go…. this went on for a while before he finally got down. I was glad I hadn’t flown again, if we’d gone XC and landing in the valleys in that strength, might have been a problem.

See photos of today.

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