we're on Ditchling. I'm gonna try and get up, it's very light.
so let's talk about launch timing. I'm standing on launch here it's very light
so I don't want to launch at the wrong time and drop out. I'm just waiting for that
feeling when the wing is lifting and when it's pulling slightly forwards. when
it's pulling you back it means the winds are strong on the hill but if you can
feel like it's gonna pitch forward a little bit like that, that should mean that
there's some lift in front, just in front of the hill. it's just the thermal
lifting and pulling off so I'm gonna go out, try and find the lift. let's see what
happens. might be helpful if I turn my vario on.
I'll check the wing. I always check again after I've launched.
very very light lift
I'm expecting, where we're flying here I'm expecting to get some lift as I
get out over the trees because you've got ground that's warming up and you've
got a whole bowl here which has got shadow in it. if you look here that whole
bowl has got shadow ... there's the sunlight so I'm going out
for that transition there where the warm air comes up against the hill, hits the
shadow and then triggers.
I've got two seagulls off to my right climbing up there, so that's showing me this may be
something out this side. I can drift across, now I'm on the line where I
expect the lift would be pinging up
and I'm gonna use this hill as my bomb-out slope
see if I can connect with the thermal the seagulls were in.
light lift there
kind of zero
I don't want to get too close into the sheep here, I give them a little bit of space
I'm gonna use this slope to land
So you just keep yourself in the game. I haven't
committed to anything that I can't really get back from but equally you
don't want to stay on the hill especially when the sun is at such a steep angle.
there's no ways it's going to be warming these slopes.
I'm just keeping the glider up because I can feel what the air is doing then. it's
much better than standing on the ground. with a little bit of a gust there and
the change in direction. I'm still getting that feeling that the glider is
pulling forward, see that? so let's go off again now we've got a bit
of slope here see where we are headed
I expect it to get a bit trickier here because I'm now pointed more into wind
the wind's coming around that corner so I'm not getting a good angle on this
ridge. the ridge lift is weakened, but if I can just keep myself near the top I
can get around the corner to the better face.
I can always slope land here if it's not working out now this is gonna be a
tricky little corner to get around because this is exactly where the winds
gonna want to come around and spill into this little bowl. if I can just sneak
past these bushes ... don't want to come in too low here I might get a little bit of
turbulence just around as I'm approaching the fence line.
over there I'm just going to ease over the top and now we've got a better facing
slope. OK that's now better into the wind.
we've got another one of these little bowls to transition and then we are on
a good face. this little piece here at I'd want to fly fairly fast
I've just got my hands up
letting my glider glide through this a air, to transition I can even use a
little bit of speed bar here. I don't really need to, I've got enough penetration
just let it swim its way upwind. I've got another big deep shaded bowl here so
with all this shade around ideally I'd want to be out somewhere
over the fields to get the thermals but there's no slope landing coming back so
I'm just going to use the ridge while I can get around these trees and then move
on to the main bowl. there's the Ditchling launch alternative
over there and now we're on a good slope see that's pointed nicely into wind it's
got a nice scoop and let's see if I can pick something out slightly further out.
there's a bit of a strike of a thermal but not enough to do a full circle and I
can continue on that line I can always come back to the ridge
there we go
little thermal not quite enough to do a full 360 as I settle into my corner now
I look at my averager: 0.2 ... just enough to stay in.
The climb has strengthened a little bit
we're up to 0.9 on the average so I'm just gonna stay with it
I'm not adjusting my circles at all I'm just gonna let it drift me up and at
this point it's gonna start spilling over to the back so now I point into wind
and I'll try and drive upwind a bit on that same thermal source
to try and pick up some more lift. going forward again. I've got to try and pick up
something further off the hill now because as you can see that one topped
out really close to the top of the hill but I've got a little bit more height
than I had before so now I can go further out and I might be able to get
up to that shadow line so I'm just following my nose straight into
wind on this weak lift line.
just little bubbles coming off the same source and the weaker ones will hit me
first, the stronger one will be further out and
going more upright. So says the theory. let's see how far we can get just
check back at the ridge I think I've got enough height to glide back in if I need it
I'm getting close to the point I want to turn. The idea is to try and search in
the spots where you've got light lift so you're not sinking out. so I'm crossing a
bit trying to find something there.
it's not strong enough for me to turn in. I can use that line to get back to the hill
so trying to go back into that little bit of lift and going directly down wind
back at the hill on that weak lift line.
there it is!
a bit of lift there. the trick is to always top up. never miss an
opportunity to gain a couple of metres that gives you more search options but
I'm also watching the other guys next to me to see if they're getting more lift
than me. Always shift over to wherever it's
working better. you see he has climbed in there, he's hit something there.
It shows me there's a little bit of lift off to my left so I can move my line out to the
left slightly and maybe pick up something out here.
It's gone back down to -1
Time to go back to the hill
go look for another. that's the game it's very simple you just keep doing these
searching patterns going back to the hill using the hill to just recover as
soon as you've recovered your height try and find that lift line, push out on the
lift line, keep working it and keep watching the other pilots to try and
work out if you're in the best spot or not.
good luck, I hope that helps you get away
from the hill or at least up or extends your flight time a little bit. Have safe
flying and as always, thanks to the crew on Patreon, we really appreciate your
support and thanks to everybody that pops over to Flybubble.com and gets some
gear, that keeps the show on the road.
safe flying guys!