If agonising over where to go flying was a competitive sport, Geoff and I could be top class. So the forecast (as we understood it) was SE going S, SW in the evening. Possibly getting cloudy in the afternoon. Our options were Bache, the Wrekin or the Gyrn. So here was our reasoning:

The Wrekin: Kai made a convincing argument, but the proximity of Shawbury airspace would limit our downwind XC ability and just because he can fly round it or do a triangle on a comp wing doesn’t mean we can.

Bache: It’s a load of hassle getting the key and Steve Lowe said the sky was messy and it was SW and strongish at Kington.

The Gyrn: Mick reported that the sky hadn’t sorted itself out yet and the XC potential isn’t fantastic.

Steve had suggested Elan Valley and Piers confirmed it was off to the south a bit, but looking good. So we dismissed all the original options and plumped for Elan Valley. It was indeed looking good – all the way to Rhayader, where the sky started to look dark and ominous. We would have to get into the air and downwind fast to outrun it. Once on the hill the sky was no longer a problem though… the wind was 90 degrees off, so no flying anyway. Graeme and Dave B. also turned up and given the sky we had just driven through, we decided to switch sites and went to Camlo.

We’ve tried and failed to fly Camlo every time we’ve been there, mainly due to strong winds. This time, the winds were so light we didn’t think we could stay up and the sky downwind was good, but getting more threatening ahead. By the time we had our gliders out the wind had gone off and picked up. Graeme had a three minute flight where he didn’t get above the hill and then slope landed over the fence. Dave had to walk some paces down the hill to launch as the wind was still picking up and once in the air zoomed one way and crawled back the other before landing near the bottom of the hill and having to walk back up. At this point Graeme and Dave decided it was high time to tackle the daily crossword and we looked at the approaching rain and started packing up.

The sky was rubbish all the way to the Long Mynd, where it was looking great and the sail planes were having a lovely time. Kai probably had the nicest flight of all of us. Should have listened to him.

We went to archery instead.

See photos of today.

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