An analysis of flying the course from Bo Peep to Caburn...
Report 13th June (Bo Peep-Firle-Caburn)
Greg reports: It was forecast for light NE winds on RASP so I headed for Bo Peep. I launched, went to the far end of the ridge to test the air, and saw a pilot flying at High & Over. The best tactic for the day would have been to have gone to High & Over and flown/walked along the curving ridgeline towards Bo Peep. Richard Chester-Nash also pulled off a great flight from H&O past Caburn a bit later, although his route was south of Bo Peep and Firle.
^ Greg steals the Flybubble demo Artik 3.25. Stylish! Now if we can just do something about that angry chicken helmet...
There was some upper cloud which slowed the thermal development: the first clue that I should have waited a bit. I left early (just after 10am) as soon as I got a good climb (1800ft) and glided to Firle (bloop-bing! Site bagged). The air around Firle wasn’t as good as the area in front of Bo Peep launch, so I’d recommend delaying this jump until after 11am. I caught a scrap of a thermal at Firle over the sunny spur, and glided out towards Caburn, hoping for something over the flats.
Nothing. There are many green fields here, sucking in the sunlight. Oh well, at least there’s a nice little field beside Beddingham for landing, and a quick walk beside the A27 then under it leads you to the corner of the Caburn landing field. Full steam ahead to get to the top of Caburn before any seabreeze comes through. (Bloop-bing! Site bagged)
^ Flybubble Team pilot Paul Watts on Bo Peep at 10am.
Although it was a really good day and everyone was still flying and thermaling around, it was impossible to get off Caburn. The wind was light NE to SE but never enough to sustain a flight, and although I knew the thermals were lifting off the flats I couldn’t reach them. So be cautious about racing ahead to relaunch from another site along the course. It is far better to hold back and stay airborne. Plan your day around getting to the most flyable site at the most flyable time, and do the majority of the turnpoints in one flight.
So there I sat watching pilots using that cumulus bridge to fly from the ridge on the right (Firle) well out into the flats (Glynde and beyond). The clouds are caused by the seabreeze approaching me from the SE (Eastbourne) pushing stable air underneath the more unstable NE airmass. Another seabreeze is pushing in from the south (Newhaven). If you’re in the bit where the air converges, you go up. If not, you sit on Caburn, wishing you hadn’t forgotten your lunch in the car, and you watch while your friends take the piss.
At 1pm the seabreeze (and Carlo) reached Caburn and the wind switched instantly from frustrating whiff of NE to full-in-your-face S (for me, Carlo seemed to be pointing into the E about 1000ft above). Carlo said he was just flying to where it looked good at the time, so he wasn’t trying to race. Keen race addicts and other pedants will notice from his tracklog (below) that he missed the Firle turnpoint (na-na-nana-na!)
I scrabbled off and jostled my way up through the rough air while Carlo circled lazily overhead in the convergence under a growing cloud. I got 400ft above the ridge in a strong grotty climb, and thinking it was never going to get any better (it was really starting to blow through) I worked it over the back. Only to lose it over the hills. Bah humbug. It’s easy to land up here and there’s little rotor if you follow the main ridgeline North. The path takes you directly back to the launch site.
Final attempt in the strong S at 2pm, but it was just windy and not lifty. I suppose if the fate of the world depended on it I could have walked to Ditchling (it takes about two-three hours). Far better to fly some of it, at least across Lewes. Carlo was well positioned to continue, and there was reasonable cumulus development downtrack, but I expect the seabreeze would have blown through over the downs before he reached Ditchling. That was part of the reason I was off like a jack rabbit: trying to race ahead of the seabreeze.
I think on a day like this, it might be possible to complete half the course (High & Over to Truleigh). But you’re not going to get back from there, except on the bus. Prove me wrong!
PS. Pete Finnis reports flying at Beachy Head most of the afternoon, in stable conditions (couldn't escape). Other pilots were flying Newhaven cliffs.
Tracklogs
You might be able to glean some information from the two contrasting tracklogs:
Don't left click 'em. Right click 'em, and 'Save Link As' to download them to your PC. Then open each file on your PC in Google Earth.
- Fast and low Greg (Google Earth, KML)
- High and slow Carlo (Google Earth, KML)