A frustrating day.  Sunny but the 30kt+ gusts meant that the toys stayed tucked up safely in the hangar.  The wheely bin was blown over and was leaning against a tree and proved a useful indicator that the wind was indeed stronger than yesterday...if the wind dropped the bin would fall onto 4 wheels again.

However, the team were determined to fly something and Paul & Ian made a make-shift kite from Paul's coat.  This proved to be airworthy, but aerodynamically unstable! We also went into Ontur for a wander round and to our surprise found an ice-cream van and couldn't resist.  We also stopped off in Leon's for a coffee. 

Tonight we enjoyed another excellent Tapas meal at Bar Capri in Fuente, and staggered back to the hotel.

Stats: Paul's coat - 10 minutes! 

Just the two flights today, both in the Duo.  First to launch were Ian and Keith into the teeth of a howling gale.  The launch as viewed from the ground was 'interesting' enough to persuade Paul to get the LS4 back in the hanger before the tug had returned.  As reported by Keith, the air up to 600' was vey rough - a day for tight straps and trousers tucked into socks.  Ian and Keith stayed local and got up to over 4000' AGL, staying up for an hour and a half.  The lift was a mix of thermal, ridge and small bits of wave.  This was all sampled and involved good climbs and fast pushes back into wind.

About 6.20 pm., Ian and Paul launched.  The wind had dropped to fractionally and the sky looked interesting with wave bars forming, rotor cloud underneath (cycling quickly showing the classic curl over on the upwind side) and the occasional cumulus.  As with the previous flight, the lift was a mixture and the intrepid duo experimented with it all.  Some excellent lift was tempered by areas of off-the-clock sink.  Again, a height of over 4000' AGL was attained.

The view, as the sun lowered, was magnificent with the parallel ridges of volcanic rock backlit, the shadows emphasising the ground features  and all contrasting with the sunlight reflecting off the distant lakes south of Hellin.

The Duo landed at 7.55 pm and fifteen minutes later, we were on the road to Hellin for Chinese meal and the first Cruzcampo.

A sporting day.