Wednesday was windy from the west and made the Cotswold ridge work really well. G-OPIK launched from the cross runway for the afternoon and set off on the Bath run. Conditions were so good it was possible to do 108 kph average down to Bath and back twice.

Mostly it was a low level and fast but the air was good and one 7 knot thermal at Yate gave a quick climb to 3,400ft so the long upwind haul round Wootton-under-Edge and Stinchcombe could be overflown direct north to Nympsfield.

Visitors trailed from North Hill and The Park and Nigel Greenwood drove over from AST, all to launch from Nympsfield and join in the fun.

The visitors got some practice in on the ridge, at very high heights, and then tagged on behind Trevor Stuart, the local ridge guru for a lead-and-follow. He insisted they come down to 700 feet to start at NYM - that caused a few queries but they did what they were told, saw heights they had previously rejected as impossible - and all got home comfortably and later said "we will be back".

We have flown over from Aston Down before in our DG500, using a tow from the Nympsfield tug to get into wind onto the ridge and gliding home downwind at the end of the day. Next time the wind is 270 to 300 at 15 plus knots on the Aston Down weather site try this yourself.