fan .. flipping ..tastic! I don't like flying in strong wind, and today had a basewind of maybe 15km/h. Sure, it's not going to break the world record, but for enjoyment, nothing can beat thermalling up from 100m off the deck (low save) and cranking it up to 3500m asl again. Excellent.

Flying the Astral5 was a bit of a holiday, since I could fly one-handed most of the time and take photos. This glider is really proving to be bomb-proof .. in fact it's a little bit on the stable side for me, a bit reluctant to whip into a turn. But this makes it great for relaxing flying, and when the other pilots on competition gliders were complaining of getting hammered around in the turbulence, I could have an easy time of it flying on 3/4 speedbar and only needing to hang on the back risers from time to time to stabilise the wing.

Well, heading out from De Aar was slow. Climbs were good but there was heavy 7m/s sink in between, which put Bernie down at 50km. So we flew slowly, topping up in everything we could.

 After taking a whole bunch of photos of Ewa, she stepped onto the speedbar and disappeared into the distance, leaving Pete and myself to float along in her wake. We had set a goal of Hopetown, which Ewa took to be a PWC task and smoked in half an hour before us.

Pete wanted to land, but I told him to keep flying. I mean, how often do you get a chance to go for your personal best, in lovely light wind conditions, with retrieve beneath you, and no stresses in the world. Come. on. Flyflyfly.

So Pete got the message and flew and flew and flew. I tried to catch him, but he became untouchable once he realised that I was chasing him. I had a personal goal of 128km (my personal straight-line best), and I was ecstatic to get past it still at 2500m above the ground. Then 145km went by, and 150. Finally the day got very light, thermals were maxing out at 0.2m/s, and I decided to go on final glide ... to 168km.

Then Pete found some magic lift, and carried on till after sunset, landing at an incredible new personal best of 187km. Respect!