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13/4/02 - Simon Kerr, 14km from Hay Bluff

The venue was Hay Bluff and the thermal was out of this world. There was really only one all day, at least only one that mattered. One of the most rapid climbs to base I've ever had, for at least a minute and a half my vario didn't move from 11 up, and I really mean it was as if it got stuck there and just wouldn't budge. Considering that I had the 360 banked up to the limit you could say that it was strong I suppose.

When we reached base it was almost instant white out, since big ears seemed to be particularly useless I decided to try a spiral. I thought I'd need to keep it cranked into a full spiral for some time to get out of the cloud, but I didn't expect to continue climbing whist doing so. SCARY!!! Eventually I did find myself starting to descend, with huge relief I headed off to the sunny side and shortly later found myself in a big blue hole which came out of no where. (Note, must pay more attention in future).

Landed just short of Crickhowell after a long glide. Tim P made Abergavenny, but I'll let him tell you about that one. Good planning is always important when flying X/C. We left a car outside the Bridge Inn, that's the kind of good planning I like :-)

Simon...