Thermal Soaring on Manmoel Common, Ebbw Vale

I had some time off work on Friday, and as the weather forecast was good for some thermal soaring, I loaded both the 2m Climaxx Compact and the 2.85m Thermal Instinct in the car and headed up to Manmoel Common, Ebbw Vale.

The air was very still but I could feel the warmth in the sun as I launched the Climaxx Compact.

Almost immediately after shutting down the motor, I was into a thermal, which took me way up until it was a speck in the sky. At one stage, even a Buzzard came and joined me in the thermal.

Then a Police helicopter came along which had been hovering about a mile away but seemed to want to take a look at what I was doing and then, satisfied that I was ok, he turned back to where he had been hovering previously. But because he had come so close to me, I had to bail out of the thermal I was in and lose some height rapidly.

Anyway, the following video tells the story, so enjoy.