We went to fly at Corndon. It was very light, but forecast to pick up. As we were opening up the gliders small bits of cumulus were just beginning to form. I had to change the speed bar on my glider and by the time we finished messing around, the wind started blowing. I got off fast while I had the chance and thermalled straight up, no beats at all, so left the hill more or less immediately. The drift was strong and I was over the NW edge of the ridge quite low, but the lift was good and I was under a building cloud, so I stuck with it, leaving the hill with only 900 feet ATO.

Because the wind was SE, the drift was straight towards airspace at Welshpool. I tried to fly north of it, but got scuppered trying to fly cross-wind. I landed at Forden, only 10k. I would have got a lot further, even with just a glide, but for having to avoid airspace.

After I launched the wind picked up and Geoff elected not to fly and chased me. A super-fast retrieve got us back up the hill for another go. On the drive up we saw Graeme and Dave B. going XC. The clouds were developing properly by this time. We found out later that Graeme got to Llanymynech and Dave B. and Kai landed somewhere north of Welshpool. James D. landed on Long Mountain. Congratulations to Graeme, who won the day.

By the time we got back to the hill after Geoff retrieved me, the wind had picked up a lot and it wasn’t safely flyable for PGs anymore. It probably was OK for HGs when we arrived, but the wind was picking up, the clouds were getting bigger, and the wind was right on the small SE corner. And there is currently no official bottom landing from the SE face. So Geoff decided not to fly, which, given how the wind and clouds developed, was a good decision.

We ended the day with nearly everyone meeting at our house (complicated car retrieve stuff going on) for beer and tapas.

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