Sunday morning and I headed up to Gallow Hill with my trusty and much abused Spark. This hill is not too far from home although it takes me about 40 minutes of walking to get to the slope from where I leave the car. An interesting walk with ex WW2 military buildings at the start, an ancient boundary marker stone to pass and the remains of the wreckage of an Avro Anson at the top. Great views to the south and north too.
When I got to the top there wasn’t too much wind and my Spark felt heavy as I heaved it out into the 7mph breeze which was crossed from the right.
Not much lift and the model needed some hasty trimming but I managed to get it above the slope after blundering around looking for lift. Found lots of sink in the process! The breeze began to die so I pushed the model out from the slope to look for thermal activity. There was some activity but the Spark seemed to be drawn into that sink again. I should have landed when I still had height and the ensuing land-out and retrieval soon warmed me up! When I got back to the launch point the wind had straightened up to the promised north-west and the slope lift was suddenly working quite well and the Spark was looking much happier. Me too!
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| View looking north west |
When I got back to the launch point I was really warm this time. The wind had swung off to the west and I was able to heave the model off into the air once more. A bit crossed but ok and quite thermally. Yippee! Then the wind swung round to the south-west and the lift died again. A hasty landing avoided another long walk! The windmills on the distant wind farm were at right angles now. At this point I could see some heavy showers heading my way and I high-tailed it back to the car. Just made it before the hail and sleet arrived and headed home for bacon and egg brunch.
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