Got onto Ponty t/o just after 12 to find it very active and going from strong to zero and back in the space of seconds. Not good news, so I got my kite out to play with that for a while, but it couldn't cope with the nil wind bits, so I packed it away and had a kip for half an hour. Ahh the joy of having a camper van!!! When I woke it had settled down a bit so I got my glider out and launched into a bit of a lull, and boated gently along the ridge, looking up at my two exposed cores, one on the brake line and one on a D line. Must get them sorted. Nice and smooth for a while, then starts to get bumpy, but going up so no problem. Push out into the bowl, straight into some sink that makes all the lines go slack for a second, then the glider dives forward and everything tightens up and I do mean everything! Turn back towards the ridge to see that I lost a lot of height in that sink so I start to hunt in earnest and within minutes am getting a happy sound from the vario. Back along to take off where Jen is out with her camera, taking pictures of the dogs. She will make the dogs look at the pictures later on too. She took some of me too so I don't mind. Back along the ridge and suddenly into a big one, booming up with numbers on the vario blurring and the speaker screaming, head straight into wind and suddenly come out the other side with a satisfying little dive and then the wing rocks back and I am into another one. I can see that the valley has become overshadowed so I know this won't last, and head out over Ponty with 900ft ATO and just fly over my little village, then turn back and head for the ridge at a nice fast lick. Some tight turns get rid of the height and I come in to land just as the last bit of lift rolls over the edge of the hill and lifts me up. My glider has a parachutal stage on deep brake so I use this to start coming down vertically, but I am very very aware that a sudden gust could put me into a deep stall, so I come down and then ease up, come down a bit more and ease up and finally touch down nicely. I manage not to fall over too. After a break I take off and do it all again but the sun is behind the clouds so I don't get the same height, but the bonus is that it is a bit smoother, so I can parachute down with a bit more confidence. Wind has dropped so I do some GH, including some little two beat hops, very satisfying as it gives the chance to do some spot landings. Always good to practice those, as Sheryl says, you never know when you will have to squeeze into a small landing area. Eventually it gets close to time for food; Salmom don't normally make much noise but I can hear mine calling me, so I wrap up, making a note of where the damaged lines are. Didn't expect to fly today so it was a bonus, and it got Jenny and the dogs out too!!!
