Windy conditions

We arrived on a very wet Friday night with the promise of a good forecast for the weekend and for our attempt at circumnavigating London. Saturday dawned bright but the north easterly wind was just a little too strong. A few pilots did take off but most landed near Reading ending their day there. For us and everyone else, we decided to stay put hoping for lighter winds later in the day. By 4pm we were still waiting on the field and by this time had decided to drive to Damyns Hall where we had been due to fly to that day in East London.

Some pilots flew that evening as the sun was setting. We met the locals in the cafe and had a good feed which they refused to charge us for (THANK YOU Gary, if you ever read this!). Michel gave a briefing that night and we decided to be up early and out first thing. It was calm when we woke and we quickly sorted our machines. Ben, Luke and I were first off out of all the pilots. The wind was strengthening and cloudbase was only 1000ft or so... We decided to go for it heading off towards the Thames crossing it near the Dartford Bridge in cloud! We headed over Dartford and then were over more open country thankfully, waving to the golfers on a course below us.

We rounded a turnpoint at Chevening Park before following the M25 south of the North Downs. We had been travelling at about 75km/hour (groundspeed) but now we were being hit by rotor and turbulent air as we were now in the lee of the Downs as the wind blew over them before hitting us. It was very bumpy and we saw one pilot (Simon Harding) land by Clackett Lane Services. We were crabbing side ways along and trying to fly back upwind required full bar. It was rough and we decided to land near Simon and call it a day. We had only flown 34kms but it had been an experience. By the time we got back to the car at Damyns, everyone else had given up and we got home at 6pm - tired but happy after a fun weekend. Only about 7 pilots had taken off that day - 2 reached goal at Guildford in rough conditions. For me, it was not fun and certainly not worth the risk.

We plan to attempt the flight again soon... in better weather!

Thank you to Michel Carnet who organised the whole event and to all the volunteers.