Mark Ts, view on a couple of incidents at the Dyke 4th March with punchy spring thermals

I saw the first incident at close hand as I was thermaling above Fluckinghill around 12.00 pm when I saw a white wing about 100 foot below and upwindof me in a spin, about 100 - 200 feet above the hill. I didn't see thestart of the spin, but watched the pilot rotate 6 or 8 times, while I wasthinking shit, if he doesn't take corrective action (let off inside brake,apply some outside brake, let the wing dive and start flying again.. orthrow the reserve) I'd be watching a death, or (as a doctor) would soon beknee deep in a major accident. Just as I was totally convinced he had hadit (as the next 360 degrees would have him swung hard into the deck) thepilot partially corrected the rotation and the wing dived and began to fly -and almost simultaneously he hit the brow of the hill, at the edge of thetree line, but apparently at an angle to the slope, reducing the force ofthe impact, and the wing went into the edge of the low tree line. The pilotwas on his feet straight away and gestured that he was OK, which was anenormous relief, and I think then had a very long job of picking his wingout of the bushes/trees.

Although I did not see what started it, the thermals were pretty frisky (dueto the bright sun, cool air, and high lapse rate - latter I had littledifficulty getting to clodbase at 4,700' at the Ditchling end of the ridge,and had to try quite hard to get down)). I suspect he may have been circling (or starting to circle) slow in a thermal with quite a bit ofinside brake, and had a collapse in the outside wingtip flying out of theside of what at that height were often small bullet cores, and overbrakedthe inside wing to compensate, stalling the inside wing and entered the spinthat way. Did anyone see the start of the cascade, or is the pilot on theforum and able/willing to comment.

After that I flew along the ridge to Ditchling a couple of times, and byabout 1.00pm found the thermals rather better formed and more obliging upthat end. Once at cloudbase I could see everyone else had landed (otherthan the HG's, a gaggle of which flew off north into the distance from aboveDitchling, and had helpfully marked one of the thermals I used to get upinto the cold), so I guessed windspeed on launch had risen. Penetration wasstill not a problem further up, so I had fun flying about with the sky tomyself until desperate for a pee and had to come down after a couple ofhours airtime, at around 2.00pm . By then although top landing was noproblem it looked too windy lower down to really have much fun flyingagain(plenty of lift, but gale hanging), so called it a day.A pretty classic spring day - exciting but potentially dangerous.