Soaring Dungiven

With a calm morning but a light SW forecast, Martin Bates and I headed to Dungiven at lunchtime. We found the wind on the west face 10-14mph. I took off and found patches of best lift in the bowl to the north. I boated around for a while but with only light gloves my fingers got so cold that I came in for a top landing. Martin then flew - also soaring but also with no great height to be had. Gradually the wind eased  to 6-8mph resulting in Martin making a bottom landing.

I drove down to collect Martin and discovered there was no wind in the landing area. However on getting back to the hill we still had 10-12mph W wind! I took off for another flight but had to work hard to stay up in the intermittent blobs of lift coming through. Eventually I started sinking to takeoff level again and came in for a slope landing.

We amused ourselves for a while ground handling before packing up and heading up the Glenshane Pass. Stopping at the Ponderosa we had an excellent meal, then headed to the Dunsilly Hotel near Antrim for the UHPC AGM. Usual good craic there and new committee elected including some of the old committee for continuity.

Photo shows Martin airborne: