A clear sky and a light SSE wind didn't look promising but a few puffs of cloud tempted Graham Mitcheson & Barry Lytollis to 'have a go'. Although they managed to stay up on the Milfield Hill it looked like so much hard work no one else was tempted. Finally, after an exhausting couple of hours they returned to the site. They had hardly had time to explain what hard work it had been when, at the mouth of the College Valley, raggy clouds started to appear, could this be wave ? Richard Abercrombie was first off, closely followed by your blogger, Steve Rae & Steve Marriott. We all towed straight into strong wave near Hethpool. My vario showed 8.6 kts shortly after release and the others had similar climbs. Eventually we all arrived just over 10,000' with a classic bar below us.
3 of us headed out towards the coast but the milky cloud below started to thicken and it looked as though everything was going to collapse. A rapid descent to cloudbase, around 4000', showed a different scene with a clear slot still over the College Valley - so back up to 10,000' again! The slot ran a good way West allowing flights out to Carter Bar without any significant height loss. Another great Milfield wave day !
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| Approaching the top bar |
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| Lower Bar |
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| Milky Lower cloud which later increased. Note 'streets' going downwind in lower right |
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| Looking up the College Valley. Note the curved sweep of mist behind Cheviot |
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