5 of us (Chris, Eszter, Vu, Hugh and Matt) bravely made the 7 hour journey up to Portmoak on a rainy 1st December, both cars filled to the brim with bags and coats, after a late change of plan had forced us to go to Portmoak rather than Sutton Bank!
We managed to fly on 3 days through the week we spent there, which we were reminded that wasn't too bad for December in Scotland. The first two flying days were benign and beautiful, but unfortunately not good enough for the ridge to work for most of us (well done to Hugh for getting over 30 mins though). On the Thursday we got too much of what we wished for... we launched in 20 gusting 30kts, getting winched to 2000' and shaken about a lot on the way. The local instructor Chris did most of the flying but it was impressive to feel what it was like flying with 40kt winds on the ridge at height felt like - a bit of an elevator ride! It was interesting to see how challenging the flying can be at times at sites like Portmoak.
Everyone had a great time and we enjoyed ourselves with local aviation museums, go-karting and castles on the off days. It was entirely worth it even for the amount of flying we did. We'll be back in 2019!
Chris Barrott 2018