The first ever successful flight to goal from Longridge, and only the second ever successful flight to goal from a Pennine site. I need to do one from Parlick to complete the set now, after two failures due to admin rather than failure to make the flight.
Goal at the edge of 2000' airspace and the promise of a retrieve if I made it. Got a nice shout out on the radio from Paul Hester as I crossed Blackburn - morale boost!
Thought I was down for sure short of Winter Hill, but flying towards sunlit bits paid off.
Thought I was down again the far side of Winter Hill, after getting drilled over the falling ground, but had enough left to turn in a final thermal that put me within comfortable glide of goal. Landing was hairy, requiring full bar to stay over the field and still going up from time to time, eventually arriving vertically and having to run after the wing on touchdown. Forecast was spot on, and right now I'm happy I didn't go where the wind was forecast to be even stronger. Time will tell - I suspect today there will be much bigger flights, ones which at the time of writing are probably still going on.