26th Dec: Boxing day: Light NNE 10mph Slieu Lewaige. A bit light for me and a bit North. Simon and Jamie, followed by Ean were on N Barrule and just about soaring the NW side. Didn’t make any sense to me as the forecast and clouds were definitely NNE. But that was obviously where the best lift was. I hoped that by the time I had rigged the Atos on Sl Lewaige all would come right. In fact it was starting to blow up quite well and Jamie and Simon canned it. By the time Jamie and Simon took off from Lewaige it had picked up a lot and although he looked good to me (After I returned to collect my car) at 450 feet out over the beach he apparently wound up landing backwards.
Before Simon and Jamie arrived I had a nice enuff wally around but got a bit bored with only 300 ft and when I flew over the Albert Tower decided to chance the ridge run as I thought with it being so far North I might get better lift past Sky Hill to Glen Duff. Wrong I sank all the way, albeit fairly slowly, and by Glen Duff was worried I wouldn’t get to Sulby flagpole. But just made it and had a lousy landing. But rewarded by nice cup of tea and cake from a lady spectator in Bungalow at the flagpole! I think its the first time I have ever achieved a cuppa after landing out. Things are defdinitely looking up.
27th Dec: As usual midnite would have been the time to fly as by the morning it had switched tother side of NE to ENE about 16mph on take off. I was very glad to have Simon and Keiths help to see me off in slightly gusty take off conditions. Had a nice float around in slightly choppy conditions but it was cold with eyes and nose running. (When I was rigging there were some classic wave clouds and I thought my luck might be in, but they were replaced by cumulous by the time I got off and never returned).
Mainly about 700ft but got cloudbase at 1400ft on Hibernia and could have done the Laxey run but had family over on the beach so flew over Ramsey to show off. It didn’t look like a good day to do the Ballaugh run as too far East and got tired due to cold after a couple of hours and not flying very efficiently. As the wind picked up more after a couple of hours I wallied around to a grand or so in zeros out over Ramsey and decided to just relax and let it go where it would. Wound up following the Sulby River, Hardly a sensible route for lift in the middle of winter but possibly got some effect being downwind of Ramsey. I only lost slowly all the way to Sulby then getting lower concentrated on getting on to NE face Goby Volley (N end of Ballaugh) with best height. Arrived with 400ft but slightly dissapointed to get no more than 550ft after 10 minutes. Then it was just a slow plummet to land at my favorite field (with pond) at corner of main road and the first Orrisdale turning.
See you soon
Martin