Wednesday 5 May 2010

4th May - Nice day at Builth

Ian Price, Stuart Mayson, John (?) Noel McGovern and Kevin Poole trekked over to Builth for an early start (after some of us stopped for an Ian Price greasy breakfast at Leominster).
The day looked promising, but the wind on the hill was strong and more off to the east than expected. Still, we managed a few early flights with small and punchy thermals under a perfect looking sky. Got to about 3000 feet ato then suddenly everything everywhere was sinking and we all landed back on top. John had been for a short "visit" to the gulley below launch, but no lasting damage (except a missing camera).
For a while we just sat and stared as it got stronger and started to cloud over from the west - but still the BOS hangies didn't take off.
Then, around lunch time, with the cloud cover now nearing 100% and the wind still strong and mostly off the hill, we decided to have a last go. To our suprise, there was lots of lift around. After we had been in the air a few minutes, the hangies got the hint and took off, rapidly heading off to the south.
Stuart was the first of us to head over the back and did about 20km towards Brecon. Shortly afterwards, Kevin followed him and flew past him and on to Brecon. The others stayed on the hill (Ian insists his inability to get away was something to do with a lengthy search for a missing camera, but we know the truth!).
A dozen huge free range eggs from Fforest Farm's honesty hut and a nice beer in the Red Lion at Pembridge on the way home rounded off a surprisingly good day.

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