Sometimes you just have to do it!
After getting overly excited about the prospect of good flying in Scotland at the weekend and being put firmly in my place by the real weather conditions I gave up on the idea of flying and made other plans.
A productive day was spent at home, cleaning the greenhouse! And other useful spring jobs. I then made the made the mistake, late in the evening on Sat, to look at Telegram and various flying Google groups as well as weather info.
Disaster! There was talk of Bradwell and 5* conditions down south. What's disastrous about that I hear you ask. I'm a paraglider pilot and conditions are forecast to be good, no decision required.
The problem is I live in Fort William, 7 hours drive and 358 miles away. To make it worse I hear that Bren, Przemek and Dave are heading down. As I slip into bed just before midnight I quietly mention to Debbie that I was thinking of flying the next day. 'Oh that sounds good' she says, 'where are you thinking of'? 'Derbyshire' I say. The lights go on immediately and she sits up and looks at me with complete disbelief on her face. 'You must be joking'! 'But I might not get another day like this for a while and I haven't flown Bradwell' I say somewhat sheepishly. The lights go off. 'I might be able to get a lift from Glasgow to save driving all the way' I add hopefully. 'Well I think you are completely mad and you can sleep in the spare room so you don't wake me in the middle of the night'. I give Debbie a kiss and promise to let her know how I get on.
I am up at 03:15 and have left the house by 03:30. I am outside Przemek's house by 05:50 and just after 06:00 we are heading south in Bren's car.
Bren has already been in touch with 'Mr Weather' Wallbank and a task has been set. 144km to goal near Olney, somewhere down south near Milton Keynes. I close my eyes mentally thinking what would be required for the rest of the day and try to sleep.
I will leave others to write up the flight but suffice to say everything goes to plan. We get to Bradwell in good time, there are loads of other pilots there and Bren and I take off at 11:21 and after one beat climb out. 5 hours 48 minutes later I fly through the goal cylinder and after exactly 6 hours I land on a grassy lawn right by a service station. Bren is already there, Wallbank and Barney land just before me, followed by Phil and Andy. The smiles all round would crack a granite slab! We get a people carrier taxi back to Bradwell for the bargain of £28 each and by 02:00 that night (now Mon morning) I am back in Glasgow for a doss on Przemek's floor, a mere 22 and a half hours after I got up! Przemek also had a cracking day with a PB of 115kms.
I am up 4 hours later and after a spectacular drive over Rannoch Moor I am in work at 08:30, Starbuck's coffee in hand. The staff give me quizzical looks, they know I have been up to something.
What a something it was!