Geoff writes: Corndon again! This time slightly fewer people, because the Joint Services comp went elsewhere. As we were driving to the site, there was a lot of wave in the sky, so that worried us a little, but it was dissipating, and gradually the cumulus developed.

Kai and James got away first . Kai got to the coast at Llanelli for 127km. Judith was in this gaggle, with a couple of others, but came back to the front, they weren’t quite high enough, which was probably a good move given that James landed just over the back, and had to get a ride back for another go.

The next gaggle had Martin, DaveT and the SE Wales guys in it. We hesitated a bit too long, and missed it.

The wind then picked up considerably, and though it was still flyable, it meant the thermals were very broken. Eventually, it dropped off a bit, so we launched under a big cloud. I pushed well in front and got a good climb, and the others came in underneath me. In the end, four of us left, me, Judith, Richard Worley and someone else. The climbs were mostly pretty good, though it did get a bit rough at times. The ‘someone else’ went for a glide into the blue well behind Sarn, and landed. Judith and Richard were well in front of me by this time, but climbing, separately. It took me a while to get up again, but I did, and flew over to Judith, where we climbed out again together. Richard had disappeared by this point, and at the time of writing, we don’t know where he went.

We were doing quite well, back at base, when I picked the next cloud to go to on a glide. This was a mistake, because by the time we realised it was decaying, there was nowhere else within reach, so it was a glide into the blue hoping the next cloud would form in time. We passed over a couple of triggers, with no result, and when we were finally a couple of hundred feet above the ground, there was lift there, but it was too windy, and very broken, and we had to land. Inevitably, ten minutes later, the sky was epic right above us, with beautiful clouds. A stupid mistake on my part, which cost us a flight which should have been far longer than the 41km we did.