This morning when I woke at first light I logged onto the Internet to check the wind (much easier than looking out the window). The Internet said wsw. I jumped into the car and raced over to the lighthouse to check the direction, and it was easterly. I'm not at my best in the morning. It was a little too light to dune good today so I drove along the E side of the range looking for a place to take-off. The road I was following turned into a dry creek bed and next thing you know I'm stationary again. It would have been a good 4km walk back to a main road so I opted to empty the car, dig it out, let the tyres down to 12psi and with the help of some sticks I got moving again. A great way to waste a couple of hours, get some exercise and work on your tan. When I got back out it was NE and getting stronger. When I got back up the lighthouse again it was averaging 40kph with gusts to 65kph. Not being quite sure about either the top or bottom landing I decided discretion was the better part of valour at the moment. Later this afternoon the wind went NNE and smoothed out around 30kph , I set up the fun in a couple of minutes whilst answering questions from the tourists and then did a quick pre-flight and did my best ever base bar launch running down the face and then climbing away in strong lift. I was up for ages, I didn't bother with my vario but I got twice the height of the lighthouse and got slightly around both edges of the face. I had checked out the dunes at the bottom and there is a cut-out in the dunes slightly to the left of take-off that you can swoop down into. Luckily that was downwind today, otherwise I would have had to pick a closer spot in the fun! I had the most fun flying I have had for ages, just good old ridge soaring on a fun, how much better does it get?
I am really hoping for a W tomorrow so that I can get my last direction at the lighthouse and have a shot at Pap Hill, then I will have flown everything in Exmouth.
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