Three weeks ago the Welsh government released Wales from COVID lockdown #2 and so plans were made by the local slope fliers to have a days flying on the following weekend. Unfortunately the weather had other ideas and any plans to fly were scrapped, and so we waited for that all important weather forecast later the following week.
The following Sunday the weather was lovely with sunshine and barely a breath of wind, which isn't good for slope soaring but very nice for a spot of themal soaring, and with that the guys decided to fly on the top of Meio.
Now I hadn't flown Meio this year as in February the weather was attrocious with heavy rain and localised flooding, and the road leading up to Meio had been all but washed away, and then we went into lockdown #1.
The last time I was on Meio the flat top of the hill was about 3 feet deep in ferns and other rough vegetation but, according to one of the guys, this had been mostly cut down and there was a very nice landing strip as long and as wide as you like. Even I couldn't miss that runway! 😂
When I arrived Clive and Josh were already there, Josh flying a Radian Pro and Clive a Mantis and I had brought my MPX Heron. The Mantis is a old design with a 3m pylon mounted foam wing with flaps, a carbon tube boom and Clive had made up a fuselage pod to house the motor etc.
There was very little in the way of thermal activity and any we found were weak and only allowed us to maintain height. We were only 30m from the slope and did manage to get a little lift from the tinyest amout of breeze there was.
We did have a good couple of hours flying and Clive decided to go home. By this time a sea breeze had picked up and so Josh and I decided to move over to the slope and fly from there.
Check out the following video of the thermal soaring section of the day. Part 2 of the video will be available soon.
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