The Peak District Fly-In was organised for Sunday May 25th, the wind direction and strength dictating our site on top of 'Bosley Cloud' near Congleton, Cheshire.  The following words by Steve Griffiths are taken with permission from the PSSA magazine issue 63.

The weather was suspiciously good when we set off across the Pennines to Congleton, and our suspicions were proved right as when we were passing over the tops we were just below cloud-base, and it rained; a much more normal kick-off to the start of a PSS day.  It continued wet all the way there, but we still made it two consecutive early arrivals.

Simon Cocker followed us in to the meeting point, and soon there were a few of us raring to go.  A good NW wind meant that the fall-back options of aerotow and electric would not be needed, and off we went the few miles to Bosley Cloud.  A convenient parking place meant that the climb to the top was not too arduous, and we soon had models in the air.  At first the lift was in a quite narrow band, close to the ridge, but it soon expanded outwards and we were able to maintain altitude easily at a good distance out.  The air wasn’t quite as smooth as on sea-cliffs, but very good nonetheless, and after some early patchiness settled down into a consistent pattern of good lift extending up to a great height.  From the ridge, we could see no hills of any consequence between us, the Dee and Mersey estuaries, and the mountains of North Wales, so the fetch was well over thirty miles.  Landing was into a large area of thick heather, nature’s arrestor wires, and it was easy just to fly the models in at speed with little fear of damage.  Added to these factors, and coming as a welcome bonus, the weather smiled on us for the third time this year, being generally sunny and comfortably warm, with just a few spells of cloudy overcast, but most importantly, no rain.

The turn-out of PSS fliers was a little disappointing, I believe there were only six of us, but we were attended by a good number of spectators, mostly R/C fliers who had come along to see what PSS was all about.  As a result, it rather looks as if we shall be seeing some new faces in the circuit, as several of them seemed quite surprised and very impressed by the performance of the models, and showed great interest in taking it up.  It’s time we had some new blood, none of us are getting any younger and we seem to have a very low recruitment rate.  So, even though the pilot numbers were few, a good hill, an excellent day’s flying, and a couple of converts must surely combine to make the event a great success.  It’s a pity that more didn’t turn out to fly, though, and I know some of our regulars have now missed the last two out of three consecutive excellent events where the conditions have been first-rate;  I wonder what are the chances of this sequence continuing throughout the season?

Apart from that, there were no other unfortunate incidents before we left late in the afternoon, and everyone seemed to have enjoyed the day immensely; I hope we can look forwards to a repeat before too long.  My thanks go to Simon for arranging the day, and for taking us to a hill where we didn’t need oxygen at the end of the climb.

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