See photosThis weekend managed to do the Pilot Exam, Assymetric collapse and Tandem assessment with Gordie - This was truly an enlightening experience. The final 2 flights one as passenger and one in contol.
The one as passenger Gordie demonstrated just what is possible on a Tandem wing. Amazing. Flying at Bewldeth we were first to make base at 3500ft with some great instruction on where to fly the sky to maximise lift from clouds and avoid the normal thrashing you get at base.
Then a demo of wing overs, spiral dives, induced collapses and pitch control.
The forces and energy in these maneuvres is incredible. I thought I'd experienced some fast spirals but nothing like this and without the normal surge coming out of the spiral and struggling to get it in from tightening up a 360. Just one quick big wing over then straight into a vertical spiral and out nearly as quickly 
After a series of head spinning maneuvres and a well needed recovery I took Gordie up and demonstrated how to miss the thermals on a tandem and ended up slope landing near the bottom of the hill, but a good enough take off, middle and landing to get the ticket. 
In the meantime Paul & Rich had managed 2 XC's over the back to Caldbeck and beyond picking up some nice thermals to cloudbase.
Great weekend after crap weather of recent.
Back to some XC from the end of this week with 2 weeks in the Alps
