The Beacon, Weds 6th Feb

While the movie cameras were busy over at the Mynd, capturing DJH doing circuits and bumps, the sun was shining as brightly and the wind was blowing just as west at Malvern. I arrived with Bryan and Pat at 2pm, to find Jock with his Geo and Gareth, who were waiting for it to drop a bit.
Bryan pointed out the official landing field, which is the scrubby area just beyond those 2 nice green fields. By the time I had unpacked, and had a look over the back, (never having flown the site before), it had dropped enough to get into the air and
I soon joined Jock flying between the quarries on the left and the saddle on the right. We were staying up alright, but the greatest height I got was about 320 ft above takeoff, and this only for a minute or so. There were thermals coming up from the houses or the trees, but they were blowing back rapidly, and with the wind coming and going, neither of us took the risk of flying behind the ridge, which might have been the way to get higher.

Eventually, Gareth joined us and Bryan joined Pat in walking home along the ridge. The lift subsided as the time went on, and we all had landed by the car-park and packed up by 4:30.

John K (no longer a Beacon virgin)