Even if yesterday's always better...

I've been waiting for the big one, but so far this year it hasn't come roaring in, at least not at weekends. It's curious how other aviators often assume that when the thermals go south in the autumn, glider pilots go into hibernation. Far from it - autumn and winter are the time of the big waves when the winds power over the mountains offering swooping, magic carpet rides of up to 10,000, 20,000 or even 30,000ft for tens of miles downwind (if you've never sat in the quiet of a glider cockpit above 10,000ft with mere millimetres of glassfibre between you and Nature, you've missed out on one of aviation's most beautiful and great pleasures). So far this year I haven't managed to catch the big one because the weekend weather just hasn't been there (a nice stiff north-westerly with high pressure nearby for a bit of air mass stability normally does it); naturally, one Saturday a few weeks ago a friend (who doesn't have to trouble himself with more down to earth matters such as work) said: "Ah, but you should have been here yesterday, we got 12,000ft.'' ...thank-you so much. Yesterday, after fighting off the annual Christmas cold to go out on a crisp blue day for what looked at best like a pleasant circuit (5kt westerly), the words came: ''You should have been here yesterday, there wasn't any real wave (a mere 3,000ft was the highest anyone reached and that doesn't really count; we prefer to think in four zeroes) but the ridges were working well, the wind was 28kt at 1000ft.'' ...thank-you so much (again). In fact, yesterday's flight and circuit off a 2000ft aerotow was still a great flying pleasure (and it was nice for once to be behind the Pawnee rather than up front at the business end); the day was one of those magical ones where a sea of mist skulks around in the valleys while the hills stand out like islands - all very beautiful and a great reminder of one of the reasons why we fly, whatever we fly. But I hope to catch the big one soon...