Good old Leckhampton delivers again, Having already had one good XC from there in febuary this day was looking alot better for a trip to the coast.
Arriving late after work (11:45) the hill was silly busy and as i rigged the first gaggle climbed out and soon hit the very low base but it was working, I took off at 11:55 into the melee and two buzzards way out front showed me an escape route, i took a nice climb out on my own just as another climb full off gliders climbed just along side of me and soon we were all at base, the first gaggle had flown south already hoping to fly east of kemble? Watching my instruments through the climb out the wind was clearly nnw/nw and having set goal at Weymouth i quickly made the decision to push west hard to fly north of kemble already worrying about the sailsbury danger area (80km away) followed by Graham Steel, Guy Anderson, Joe Dart and a few others chasing lower. Although Base was still quite low the clouds were close together and i pushed on easily passing kemble where we could finally head slighlty more south, nearing the M4 i pushed to hard and flew throu a climb and got low, grey and guy took the climb behind me and as i grovelled out low from a tractor they cruised over my head at base. Now on my own i climbed back out and it was Banging for the nxt 30k with predictable strong climbs and i kept pushing west aimimg for westbury town. I had now caught grey and guy who were having to push hard across the front of the danger zone past westbury as they had taken a more southerly route than i had, we almost met up just north of warminster but i decided to keep pushing more west as it was still nnw hoping it would make getting to goal easier, also by now joe dart was always somewhere nearby so thought i had options if i got stuck. Cruised over Longleat then got really low approaching the back of Mere. Had to go into full on survival mode to stay in the air in quite a big blue hole as graham and guy raced off ahead, joe flew past and also mariusz flew straight over me on his way to the coast. Once back up it was easy and was soon 20ish km from goal at 5200ft. I needed one more climb from a cloud crosswind that would have left a very easy glide into goal at 144km, or head downwind where joe was(which would have been the better option to extend the flight but i had goal fixation) but it wasnt to be, couldnt find the climb crosswind and landed short. Quick bus to the beach to meet up with everyone else then a beer and atrain ride home with 6 of my mates: ) 2016 has started for sure.