8 April, Rhossili
Met John Nash, Stewart and Paul in the car park.. very friendly bunch, had a great briefing on the hill from John Nash.
First flight was a little wobbly on take off, scratched around for 5 minutes only to realise I'd launched a little prematurely and landed on the beach after 12 minutes. Hiked back up. Mentioned to John about my wobbly launch and he helped me out a lot with a few ground handling tips (mainly keeping the wing above my head instead of over it or behind it).
Around 3pm it looked like we were getting a consistently good wind, so I launched into some nice lifty air and had my first good soar along the hills, though I never got as high as the top launch area, I managed 47 minutes.
Met my family on the beach, decided to hang around with them playing sand castles as I thought that the day was at an end. But a couple of hours later I'd noticed that most of the pilots who had been on the hill for the day were up and flying high.. and staying high even when out over the sea.
So up I went again for another go, it was late in the afternoon when I got to the pimple and Chris and his son had just landed, they urged me on saying that it was perfect conditions. I launched from the pimple straight into strong lift, that took me rocketing right up to 940ft with only the minimum effort. Boated about for 50 minutes up and down the hill hardly loosing any height practicing weight shift, speed bar, figure of eights, 360's.. boosted out over the beach and the sea, then headed back, still in the 900's.. amazing lift band, never experience such an awesome soaring site.
Many thanks to John and the other South West Wales club pilots for the warm welcome and advice.
Hope to visit again someday
