Gordon Rigg <<gordon.rigg245km>>
writes:

A predicted good cross country day came off only for the south of
UK on Saturday with 50 mph winds in the north. A keen and brave group assembled
near Stroud in Gloucestershire and launched from a small ridge where wind speed
was close to the limit.

Meanwhile others flew from further south and east at Devils Dyke near Brighton.

Grant Crossingham (Moyes RX3.5) was among the few to make it very far away from
Stroud, and was seen passing over Devils Dyke while those who launched there
were struggling to find a climb out. Grant went on to land near Folkstone for a
distance of 266km via three turn points.

Meanwhile Dave Mathews (Moyes RX3.5) and Ollie Chitty (Aeros GT) got away from
Devils Dyke, but an hour or so behind Grant the sea breeze convergence line had
pushed in further and the wind turned less north. Dave landed at Deal and Ollie
made it to the furthest point legally possible from Devils Dyke at Margate.

Had Grant been able to make it to where Ollie landed it would have been a new UK
open distance record. A remarkable flight from Grant which involved a lot of
careful planning to avoid many different zones of controlled airspace as
illustrated here: