Good day at Agnew's Hill

Light winds forecast so we thought it might be a case of chasing the wind. I met students Keith McGeown and Gerry Johnston and we headed initially to Robin Young's hill. Finding the wind too far off to the east we tried Agnew's Hill.

The usual steep climb was a bit easier as the long spell without rain meant it was dry underfoot so no slipping and sliding this time. Wind was very light - 8mph occasionally 10-12mph. Fully expecting some hard work to stay up, I took off to check conditions and was immediately hoisted up. I flew about half way along the cliffs and back, then headed out from the hill to lose height prior to coming in for a top landing.

That was a mistake in that there was steady lift all the way out past the farm so I had to resort to Big Ears to get down. Heading downwind back to the hill took just as long as the upwind leg so lift was almost entirely thermic with little downwind drift.

After top landing I set off Keith on his Firebird Raven S. Following my earlier flight path he got higher than he has ever been before much to his initial alarm until he settled in to enjoy the experience. After some 10mins boating about he came in and made an excellent standup slope landing beside where he had taken off from.

Gerry then took off and soared. The wind had moved a bit more NE and he eventually lost the lift by flying too far out from the hill. He flew down to a good standup landing in front of takeoff.

Keith had two more flights - making an excellent slope landing on one and suffering Gerry's fate on the last one, landing in the same area.

I then flew down after soaring the hill for a bit. The wind had by now gone NE and approach to the landing by the cars was rather choppy but a tiptoe landing was made near the windsock.

As we were packing up, Ken McConnell arrived with a couple of his students, having started them off on Skeagh earlier and they headed up the hill to fly as we left.

We headed back to Robin Young's but by then the wind had died away. We were treated to a flypast by Norman Surplus in his gyrocopter.