My take on the forecast today was that it would be hot and SW for most of the morning/early afternoon and then it would move slowly round to the west. For once RASP and the MGC agreed on thermal strength and both said that the thermals would really kick off from 3pm, so we planned to do some house jobs and gardening and then go out as soon as it came on at the Long Mynd. There were people ground handling and taking a punt from lunchtime, but it was way south. By 2pm little cumulus were forming, so we got ready and went out.

As we were driving up the Long Mynd, we could see Kai, Steve Nash and Malcolm Davies climbing out. All got high, but then hit big sink, so top landed. That was it for a while. Steve tried, but the hill wasn’t playing. All the time, the cumulus were getting tantalisingly closer, so I waited. At one point I walked down the slope for some last minute pre-flight preparations, and the walk up back the hill had me soaking with sweat. It was so hot!

I wasn’t worried when 4pm passed, as the clouds were getting better. As soon as I saw a bird I lobbed off, only for it to fly off and me to sink down. I was kicking the trees over the bottom landing field, but was determined to get back up. The bird had thermalled there, so there was lift… I just had to work it! I found the bubble further out from the hill and climbed back up to a hundred feet above launch height and then top landed while everyone else was jostling in a weak thermal to the south of launch. The big boys (Steve, Kai, Malc, Mal Grace and Rich Worley) climbed out while others top and slope landed and I thought I had missed the bus when I saw Frank working a little bubble beneath the others. I launched and Frank and I worked it together, but it was weak. He headed out front and hit the real core. We climbed in sometimes ear popping speeds of 4.28 m/s (averaged) and caught up with the other guys. I pulled out to go on glide at 6000-odd feet. As we passed 4500′ the temperature actually got pleasant, and I was only wearing a t-shirt and jacket!

When we got to near base, Frank and I went on glide, first in different directions and then joining together. As we were high, I started to think about the best thing to do with the day. There was a good street ahead of me but it seemed to get raggedy three clouds in front and it was nearly 5pm. I did a test of the wind strength upwind and realised that, unlike normally, I could actually penetrate into wind. So I decided to try for the women’s out-and-return record. Unfortunately, my Garmin 76 had decided to play silly-buggers again and I had to reset it on the hill, so I lost my Long Mynd waypoint and forgot to set it again before I launched. This meant I had no idea how far I was from launch, as I couldn’t work out how to get it to reverse the route whilst I was thermalling. I have flown over the terrain many times, so I knew that once I was near the quarry on Wenlock Edge I would be about 15km away. When I got to the far edge of the cloud I was under, I headed back, planning to use the lift I had just used to get me back part of the way. Next was a big, black, scary looking cloud which I was sure would let me just cruise under it, lift all the way, and then back to the Long Mynd. It wasn’t to be… the cloud didn’t give me a beep! I sunk out just short, at Stretton!

I landed on a ridge, having seen how many power lines there are coming out of Stretton in the bottom of the valley, just next to Richard Worley. Geoff came to pick us up, but we got a lift with Jade and friends instead. Steve, Malcolm and Kai made it back to the Mynd, and then did some serious triangle stretching in front. And Frank carried on and did over 45km. Excellent flying!

I’m really pleased that I attempted and out-and-return, because if you don’t try it in these circumstances – light winds, late on and with reasonable clouds- when will you?

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