East Hill phenomenom, can anyone explain?

brian day · Post by **brian day** » Fri Jun 18, 2010 8:56 am

I've noticed this before, but always put it down to inexperience and poor flying,,,,,,yes I know,,,, it probably still is, but if so what do I do about it?
Flying along, I accelerate towards a thermal, yes, there it is, wing tip lifting, turn towards wing tip, lift increases.
OK, I've tried 2 techniques here, both work on different hills, count to 3,,,,and a bit more, start to turn, tighten the turn if the lift improves, or, keep flying until the lift starts to decrease a little, then start the turn,,,etc.
But,,,,,on East Hill,,,9 times out of 10, start the turn, and,,,,no more lift, by the time I'm facing the hill, it's deffinitely a downhill sled ride. Big circles, small tight ones and everything in between.
Is it John Miller dragging me down?
Me being a FB?
Me being useless?
The bad Karma returning?
Any other theories?

Post by **gary stenhouse** » Fri Jun 18, 2010 9:33 am

a moving wave or a none circular thermal i reckon or just bad calma you have now got john millers calma and john will now be top of the stack

cheers gary

brian day · Post by **brian day** » Fri Jun 18, 2010 11:10 am

Going to have to try flying in triangles or squares at East Hill then?
Just going to have to think positive to counter John's bad Karma, or just stay a lot 'calma' when I'm flying

GlennP · Post by **GlennP** » Sat Jun 19, 2010 2:07 pm

I m no expert and I ve only been to east hill twice but if you look out from east hill there are lots of fences, tree lined roads, power lines and a couple of low hills that the wind reaches before it sees east hill.

You could well have thermals releasing before east hill mixing with smaller thermals coming up from the base of the hill and all that coming together with the meteo influenced lower winds that have passed over or around the 2 hills infront ( which could also be a trigger point for thermals from powburn ) .

I thought it was a fun place to test my skills and top driveable in under an hour from home. Can't be bad!

Kitt Rudd · Post by **Kitt Rudd** » Sun Jun 20, 2010 8:11 am

Not knowing the site but hearing your description I am thinking along the same lines as Glen, The thermals may well be releaasing before they come up the slope. I find a similiar thing happens at Lattrigg Nr Keswick, for sure there are thermals whicch follow the slope but 8 times out of 10 in my experience the best ones release at the tree line. So next time you are at East hill or for any hill try searching further out from the take off slope
My two pennths worth
Kitt

brian day · Post by **brian day** » Mon Jun 21, 2010 9:50 am

The thought had crossed my mind, there are 2 definite trigger point away from the hill, which sometimes work.
It is usually difficult to get enough height to get far from the hill, but last Thursday I managed on 2 occasions to get height and get further from the hill than normal. The further out I went, the thermals were less frequent, less well defined and fewer in number.
I'll keep trying to break the code though!

RonDon · Post by **RonDon** » Mon Jun 21, 2010 11:37 am

I have been out from the hill past the first farm, but it was wave that took me there. Like you say Brian not many thermals!

Post by **chrisfozz** » Mon Jun 21, 2010 5:32 pm

I don’t think Brian's alone in finding it difficult to get away from east hill. It gets flown more than most hills in the Cheviots but there have been very few XC’s form this site in the last 10 yrs - it’s about as easy as alchemy. I know there is nothing wrong with Brian’s thermaling technique but if anyone can explain why it hard to get high from east hill it’s likely to be him – I think it’s about the weather

In my opinion Glen's thinking on the trigger points in front of the hill is valid but the main reason we don’t get decent thermals is the nature of the weather prevalent when we fly there, I am not sure of the explanation why this is the case but my recollection of many days flying east hill are that south-easterlies usually means high pressure and a relatively stable air mass. On the rare occasions I’ve managed to get a climb they tended to be weak and not to rise very far so it’s hard to get any distance. I think Lloyd has flown furthest from there in recent times and I remember him patiently working zeroes to get away.

There have been other days when I’ve been there in exceptionally strong conditions, with huge development and obvioulsy a very different airmas (I didn’t fly) but these occasions are much less frequent.

I’m not sure what to do about this but the best days I recall flying east hill have been really light wind. The site is not far from the coast in my experience this means thermals are less well formed. Flying light wind days the air has spent a lot longer time travelling over land and the thermals have more time to get organised. Other than that try Hownam, Semmer….

Neil · Post by **Neil** » Mon Jun 21, 2010 10:07 pm

iv had a very strong climb at east hill but over the road. ronni was in the landing feild. i had a t shirt and shorts with no instruments or reserve. it was very light and i took off for a fly down. left the thermal at about 1000ft and top landed to put my gear on. took off and landed at the bottom. there was someone else there who flew a triangle from the same thermal. ronnie might remember who it was. like you say brian strange place

John Wallis · Post by **John Wallis** » Mon Jun 21, 2010 11:22 pm

You are all missing the main point.....You are in the Cheviots and they are crap for XC just look at the stats. Too close to the sea the hill is like a dome and the thermals run up it and split like most of the hills in the Cheviots really small and not a well defined ridge.

Go to Semmerwater it works look at the stats..........