Another Dyke Day

I was still aching from yesterday's flight, but with the wind suitable for the Dyke again I couldn't resist a second day's flying. There were certainly more people out today, probably inspired by yesterday's flight reports.

After my usual faffing I was almost ready when I saw one of my work colleagues with his wife. After a quick hello and parading of my glider I clipped in, and made my way to the front of the hill. After patiently waiting for two young children to move out of my way I launched and began my initial beats of the ridge.

It wasn't long before I was in my first thermal and circling above the Devil's Dyke pub. With the wind very much off to the west, there wasn't a great deal of airspace to play in and with the sky full of other gliders, I had to keep my eye on the other traffic.

Several times I climbed close to 1,000 feet above take off and at one point I thermalled with a rigid hang glider. I was stunned at the speed of this thing as it ran running circles around me! After I had drifted over the golf course I lost the thermal and slowly penetrated forwards back to the front of the Dyke.

After almost an hour, my arms were defeated and I approached a landing from the modellers bowl, passed across the front of the Dyke pub. With a very westerly wind, this seemed like the ideal approach and was confirmed when I gently touched down in the Paddock. That was me done for the day and for the weekend!