Wet field

Went to the field in the forlorn hope of someone being there.. not to be.

FIELD SECURITY .... The gate padlock issue seems to have been resolved with 'farmers' twine' !! This is now the only security & whoever has done the job has been to the "school of knots" as I could not undo it However after using another method to access the field I carried on the long muddy walk with flying machine & transmitter. At the gateway to the new field another security measure has been erected in the form of a gate !!! Again this has been secured at the hinge side with farmers' twine & also is locked with the same knot as the main gate. Yet another hazard to pass over to access

I did have 2 good flights with the trusty Twinstar, including some "tree soaring" using the light breeze on the trees to good effect & could have probably soared all the way down them to the very end of the field. Downwind the lift was not as good.

I would not recommend the field at all at the present time mainly due to the 2 tied up gates, unless you are willing for a long, sheep 'peppered' , soggy & very muddy walk in wellies carrying your kit over 2 gates with the inherent risks involved. The water in the ditch is very high & I saw a farmer in a field on the other side of the main road driving a 4x4 with towed animal trailer being piloted by an attached tractor ! So be warned !!!

I probably won't attempt the field until spring next year & will slope soar or beach fly in the meantime.

Thanks for that Gary, it's probably time to call no driving on field until further notice, even if you have a 4 x 4, the farmer doesn't take it lightly if we churn up the field.

Can't answer the wire on the gate situation or the second gate, probably something to do with grazing rights although I'm not sure, if I recall correctly, we had a couple of incidents quite a few years ago the field was used by fly tippers on several occasions this instigated the locking of the gate I suppose it wouldn't matter to us if no padlock was fitted.

Out of interest is our lock still on gate chain or not.

Hi Rich, The locks are just hanging on a short piece of chain & our combi-lock could be removed. Both gates are actually tied up with just rope ( Farmers' twine) not wire & it is not a real security measure especially if you can undo it ! If anyone was to undo the rope & not properly secure it then we would have issues if the sheep did get out. The rope on the main gate would need to be re tied both after entry & exit. Rather a risky thing at the moment if anything went wrong or woolies went missing.