This was a flight I really didn't expect to make given that we arrived at Selsley hoping to fly and it was howling. Two of the hotships were just launching giving us a masterclass in how to launch top end wings in very strong and gusty conditions. They were soon on their way followed by a few other intrepid pilots but several of us decided to wait and see if it calmed down a bit.
We waited for quite a while and when the lulls between the gusts were marginally less a few of us took off. It was strong and punchy in the air with almost no forward speed at times but three of us stuck it out and finally George found Ruth and I a climb and away we all went.
There was a lot of active flying needed, "an upper body workout" was how one pilot described the conditions this week and he was certainly spot on. I thought I would stick with it and see how I felt and aim for some of the high ground behind as a landing option if it all got too much.
I did settle in to it after a while and started to enjoy the flight once I was higher and had some decent clouds to aim for. The streets looked nice and inviting but I didn't want to get too close to the clouds given that I have been hoofed in before and some of the climbs were quite strong.
I flew along quite happily as I have flown this way before and knew where I was which always makes me more confident, silly, I know, but it does. Then the street got blacker quite quickly, the big cloud to my left started to move my way and the lift increased. At that point I thought "time to leave" so with ears and bar on I headed out towards the sun, the ears getting bigger as I went as although I was moving over the ground quite fast I was still going up.
Once away from the cloud I thought about going on but decided against it. I probably should have but it was late in the day and we were on our way to S Wales for BCC rounds at the weekend and I didn't want to be too late getting back to the van. I can cope with strong conditions but those and big sucky clouds I find tiring so decided to call it a day and landed.
Packed up, walked up the lane to find a bus going past which stopped as I waved - amazing! One of the bonuses of being retired is the bus pass, so used that for the 4th time on retrieve - every little helps! Ruth got on a few stops later and Phil kindly picked us up from the bus station and drove us back to the hill.
A real fun and unexpected day out.