7 Hours for 30 Seconds!

I had been monitoring the weather forecast for the last few days. The local forecast suggested east to north-easterly winds and strong. That inferred Bo Peep as a possibility, but I knew the bottom landing was still in crop and I'm still not confident on reliable top landings. The forecasted wind direction was also a little off, so I ruled out Bo Peep and decided to head up to Corton, a coastal site used by the Suffolk Coastal Floaters Hang Gliding Club Suffolk. It's a 140 mile drive, so I wanted to go there only if it was on. I checked the weather forecast again in the morning and it was on, so I packed my gear and drove the 140 miles in around 3 hours.

Sadly, when I arrived, it was evident that the conditions had weakened so I quickly rigged and positioned myself at launch. With the assistance of other pilots I launched and literally flew down the slope of this coastal flight in what must have been mort shortest top to bottom to date. On the way down, my left wing skimmed the foliage [not that I noticed] and I didn’t connect with any notable lift! It was pretty much a one way ticket and as I neared the sea defences, I felt the tiniest bit of lift under my left wing, not enough to keep me aloft, but enough to turn me out to sea. A quick weight shift followed by a flare and I was down and back on my feet stood on the beach! My estimated flight duration was around 30-40 seconds, not great considering the 7 hour round trip!

On a positive, it's a new site flown and I now know where Corton is [I just need to update the TomTom POI database for future trips].