After rain over night the day dawned bright with a strong West SouthWest wind blowing at 20kts. Optimism brought the crew out early only to find low orographic getting in the way.
Mark Courtney and Stuart Procter in DG505 (Rob Hender)
The first launch (DG505) eventually got away at 12:05 and confirmed that the west ridge was working.
John Borland before his epic 2hrs 31 (Mark Courtney)
Every launch that followed got away with 15 flights many lasting more than an hour and one of two and a half (prize for longest flight -write the blog!)
The Long Mynd (Mark Courtney)
Cloud base was never more than 2000ft but there were opportunities to get higher in the gaps and some lovely cloud formations to navigate round.
Rob Rand experienced the "Short West" and some ridge soaring in K21 (Mark Courtney)
Halfway through the afternoon the wind was sufficiently strong and westerly to change to launching on the famous Short West.
Short West (Mark Courtney)
Launching to 400ft and then turning straight onto the ridge. Two heavy rain showers came through on the strong wind which presented a challenge to avoid. Great fun and all safely packed away by 6pm. - John Borland
