Last year on Saturday evening, the second weekend in January, I tripped and fell, badly bruising my left elbow. Last night I slipped on ice and fell, badly bruising my right elbow. The symmetry is spooky <grins>

Anyway the weather on Blackheath was relatively benign today compared to what was forecast. A few inches of snow underfoot (and a smooth north easterly breeze) with slate grey clouds enhanced the appearance of the mixed set of JB vented 1.5 sails.

Jacob led 5 fliers in some parallel forward/reverse upward then downward 180 wingtip turns. Later we paired the 'columns' in opposite directions which looked really cool. The last reverse turn up at the top of the window was the testing one. Moving on the ground is a great help both on the upward and downward execution. I cannot imagine why... <grins>

We flew a number of variations from centre column to edges also with emphasis on speed control. We noted that in order to impart maximum acceleration in a 'pulled' manoeuvre it is advantageous to be holding the handles in a horizontal position so as to avoid imparting imbalance in the loading on the sails as the 'pull' progresses. 'Hanging' the handle at the top connection point has limited application in my view.

Felix