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| Snow on the Flanks of Y'Das |
After an OK for some, disastrous for others, start to the week in Denbigh our decision to relocate to Talgarth, given the forecast of persistent Northerly winds, proved to be inspired. H5Matt was still kicking himself for not going there right from the start but he'll get over it...eventually. Although we didn't get much chance for classic XC during the week because of the abundant snow/hail showers quite a few OLC km were covered with one of the highlights being JB, Rowan and M5Matt getting to soar the snow speckled north western slopes of Pen y Fan in the Brecons.
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| Pen y Fan calling us over |
We also had loads of fun playing on the home ridge, persevered with the daily challenge of trying to locate an entry into the wave, enjoyed the spectacular views and of course shared a whole lot of laughs both in the air and on the ground.
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| H5 Matt and Sophie surrounded by showers |
Team Eagle adapted well to the move to Talgarth with the joy of an
aerotow to certain lift replacing the Denbigh scrabble from the winch.
The week was to be a constant string of exciting flying
with snow, hail, epic climbs and bone numbing (for P2s) cold. Nick and
Alan both had 5 hour plus flights but in the second class accommodation
at the back with little sun and a steady gale through the canopy gaps,
even Nick's tartan travel blanket offered
little protection. As the driver in the front, John Pursey was in 1st class
with sun and relatively few draughts but even he got a face full of snow
when surfing the side of one particularly strong shower. Nick's
complaint from the back was that his rug was now
white...
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| Nick deflects the snow with his travel rug (JP) |
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| Between snow showers and low cloud on the ridge (JP) |
With evening ridge top smoking by the shark and JB drawing the
old girl down to join them, it became apparent that Fred Slingsby
didn't have Youtube in mind when he designed the Eagle. She bounced and
roared (quite literally) as speed was held along
the better runs, two hands on the stick and legs braced. Nearly 20 hrs
in 4 days made the long drive north then back all worthwhile. On
Saturday evening, I held a phone call from an excited H5Matt talking about ASW20
flying with the lad asking if the noise
was the car radio on the journey home - "nope, still ridgin'" was the
reply. It was simply too good to come down... JP
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| The Eagle has landed |
