Saturday 14th January was a beautifully sunny, clear but cold day with a
steady wind onto the Tors & Cheviot. There were quite a few soaring
flights over Cheviot with one or two pilots reporting some wave. Having got to around
4,400' over Cheviot your blogger decided to explore out towards Yetholm and wondered if the
low hills from Kilham to Yetholm would work. I have only soared these hills a
couple of times before and it's a question of getting low enough for
them to work and tip-toeing very carefully from hill to hill. I flew
down towards Kilham and then pushed forward over Moneylaws Hill (where
they sometimes hang glide) to burn off height before setting off from
Kilham at around 1500'. I maintained this height nearly to Yetholm but
went a little too far and lost about 150' turning back. Again the return
run saw me maintaining height until I got back to Kilham. Flying around
the North end of the Milfield Hill brought me to a comfortable high key
for the circuit and landing. Although this looks, and feels, rather
dodgy, it's not very different from soaring the hills from Yeavering to
Wooler. What is different is that Kilham is upwind of the site and high
key is straight off the end of Milfield Hill rather than a push upwind
from Yeavering. A fun flight !
Mike Rose, flying earlier, reported reaching around 6000' and then flying out towards Yetholm where a weak bar gave zero sink. When your blogger followed later, at a lower height, there was certainly some reduced sink but I think Mike was the only one to get as high in wave.
Mike's Trace :-
