Gary C and Paul M led us to the "bushwhack ridge" - a new take off for me.
It's just E of Ben Ledi and leads norwards to Ben Vorlich. Take off is
at about 1700ft about 4k NE of Ben Ledi summit. It faces W and overlooks
Loch Lubnaig. Dense forestry covers most of the hillside below and the
treeline is not far below take off.
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Wind was zero when we got there but turned SSW and 20-30kph shortly after
which led to us trying to climb out in some rather horrible/dangerous rotor
blowing along the hill. I had one big collapse while quite low when trying
to give the others space as we all converged on the small S face of the take
off spur in a down-cycle.
Paul decided not to land (good decision, several of my rotory landings had
felt close to crashes) but went for the glide crossing several km of trees
NNW (brave decision) toward the only possible lochside landing halfway up
the loch (the generous landings at the S end of Loch Lubnaig were too far
into wind) but when he got there he worked a S facing spur and then caught
a strong thermal and went N up Glen Ample landing close to Lochearnhead.
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After seeing Paul's success (it didn't look certain he would clear the trees
at one point) I relaunched and took a similar route getting 4m/s lift
interspersed with 6m/s sink before getting to 3200ft near where Paul had
climbed out and heading up glen ample. I stayed away from Ben Vorlich
proper (too much wind near the ridges for me) and caught some weak thermals
off the lower hills at the end of glen ample which gave me enough height to
clear Loch Earn. .jpg)
I picked up a 1m/s climbs mid-loch and then more on the
N shore which got me to a reasonable height again before a dissappointing
glide with no more lift (wind had now gone much more West) along to St
Fillans at the E end of the loch..jpg){kind=spacer}
Lots of lenticulars filled the sky at the end of the day as the front
approached.
Look forward to trying the bushwhack another time in a more suitable wind
direction...
