Well, that was better than working!

I'm sure that most jobs have their busy times. For my current job, it's all about the first couple of weeks in August and the month or so leading up to them. I'm lucky though, in that even if I don't feel able to take a few days off - I can usually escape for a day here and there at fairly short notice, which ties in well with a hobby that can be dependent on weather conditions that only start to become clear a few days in advance.

Friday looked like a day (or at least a morning) of steady westerly winds which once again offered up the prospect of some practice on the wire (following last weeks winch solo) and some guaranteed ridge lift to help prolong a flight. It was a busy morning at the club, and both of our Astir's were claimed by other pilots - I pulled them out of the hangar and equipped them with batteries and 'chutes as if to will people into the air and back, so that my turn would come.

Once ready to fly, I optimistically packed a ham sandwich and a packet of biscuits in the side pocket and a full bottle of water. Nobody needs a dehydration headache at 500ft on a windy day. I was ready to go.

The winch began to pull and the ASI indicated around 60kts which is sufficient, so I rotated into the climb, tried to keep a wing down slightly to prevent blowing off track and released at the top as per usual. Turning onto the ridge provided brief indications of 2-4kt lift as expected, but the 10kt thermals another pilot had experienced in the morning didn't seem to have remained! Someone else had indicated that the ridge had worked for them until about 800ft, but I maxed out at 700 before each turn just seemed to cost height, rather than provide it. I never even bothered to put the wheel up because I didn't have confidence in climbing away.

At 500ft and only having been airborne for 15 minutes, I called right base and, given the wind conditions, executed a landing that I was really quite pleased with. As always, things I will look to improve such as carrying a bit of extra speed into the base leg, but quickly corrected and I'd rather be a little too fast than too slow. I can also chalk up another winch launch, so that's another positive.

Whilst waiting for a buggy retrieve, I ate my sandwiches. That hadn't entirely been the point of taking them. I denied myself a biscuit treat, it was not deserved!

With more names on the list to fly an Astir, I had to wait a short while and then do some searching around to ensure I didn't queue jump. I refilled my water bottle, packed my biscuits and readied myself to go again. 

A better launch this time, it seemed a bit faster and I think perhaps I got a little extra height, but the flight logger indicated about 450'. More importantly though, is that this time there was much more lift than sink, and within 10 minutes I was up at around 1000' and free to take a thermal, when one presented itself. I stuck along the ridge line until one came to me, and soon climbed to around 1500'.

It was reasonably tough going, the thermals were registering 2-4kts, even 6 in brief places, but almost as soon as I turned through them, they were gone (or at least not where I was), but I managed to gain more height than I was losing through sheer perseverance. Satisfied that this time, the ridge was a good fallback, I ventured a little further out into wind to see if I could pick up some lift before the hillside broke it up.

I was rewarded with climbs to around 2400', and a bit later, 2900' (both QFE) and found the skies to be fairly bouyant, with lots of areas of minimal sink, so I was able to fly some short, straight glides whilst maintaining height. I found Hood Hill to be a good source of thermal lift today, as well as Gormire.

At some point, I had forgotten what time I had taken off. I felt sure that it had been well over an hour, but couldn't confirm. I wondered if the one of the screens of the S80 vario contained flight time, but a quick flick through them seemed to suggest not. I decided not to worry too much about it since the flying was good and the lift didn't seem to be in too much danger of dying down (although wind strength was supposedly going to decrease in the afternoon).

Whilst the ridge lift continued to be active, I eventually started to sense that the thermals were becoming fewer, and weakening, and so not wanting to be scrabbling around at 700ft again, I retreated back there at around 1100' and found myself able to maintain it, opportunistically topping up with whatever additional lift came my way.

Eventually, I decided that I must have been very close to my two-hour target, I thought I should be sure though.

"Sutton Base, Delta Papa Oscar"

"Delta Papa Oscar, Pass your message"

"Sutton Base, Could you confirm my flight duration please?"

"Stand by."

"Delta Papa Oscar, Sutton Base. You've been flying for about two hours twenty."

"Perfect, thank you. Delta Papa Oscar."

I had a celebratory biscuit and hung around for a few minutes more on the ridge, since I still had 1000', there was no apparent rush to land. I soon decided that with the best of the day gone and my goal completed, there really wasn't anything else to be gained from this flight. I headed out to high key, made my checks, and flew a complete circuit around onto runway 24 with a landing arguably better than the first, which I had already been pleased with.

All in all, a good days flying and a great way to spend a Friday off work!