Curbar: farewell Finningley

The best (and the most frustrating) thing about flying XC in the UK is the constant challenge of the rapidly changing weather. On Saturday 23 August, a transient ridge of high pressure presented a narrow window of opportunity between weather systems. With bad air downwind to the east and a front approaching rapidly from the west, I was delighted to get another 50K out of the day.

Photo of me thanks to Mike Miller

Eyam: 54 Km for bronze

After this latest flight, I felt like I'd just won a bronze at the Olympics. Chuffed to have gotten something out of the day, but a tad disappointed not to have pushed a bit further.

Czech Republic, 12-25 July 08

The Czech Republic might not the first place that you'd associate with the term "paragliding mecca". But the facts are: [275 Km flown this May](http://www.xcontest.org/world/en/flights/detail:veetek/10.5.2008/09:30), [309Km over in Poland](http://xcc.paragliding.pl/module.php?id=21&l=pl&contest=PL&date=20080601&reference=6c20e36848871f69) and some [world-class manufacturers](http://www.gradient.cx/en "Gradient are one among Axis, MacPara, Sky"). And the interest extends beyond paragliding: Czech has produced writers like [Kundera](http://www.amazon.co.uk/s?ie=UTF8&keywords=kundera&index=blended "amazon search") and [Kafka](http://www.amazon.co.uk/s?ie=UTF8&keywords=kafka&index=blended "link to amazon search"), and Leo's 3 year old Czech "girlfriend" from the UK was also on holiday there. We'd never been before, so we just had to take a look.