Unsurprisingly the wind was up in the afternoon. I also needed a bit of a pause! A lot of lifting goes into the preparations, and effort into the launches especially when the wind is light. But I'm not complaining. In the evening we found a field, and - as the wind dropped, I got away after several attempts in (at last) some occasional shafts of sunlight. I had just enough time available before sunset to make the 50 miles to Barlborough, a few miles south of the M1/M18 Thurcroft interchange.
The weather was generally moderating, and for the first time I had an almost turbulence-free flight which moderates the stress factor a touch: easy steering, and much less active flying. My route took me south east past Wetherby, and then down the right hand side of the M1. There was quite a lot of woodland; so I climbed to a bit over 600 feet in order to have plenty of room to find a landing spot in the event of an engine failure. The wind was behind me; I made good progress. Past the M1/A1 interchange, I encountered the first of many high pylons and lines which emanate in every direction from the power station close by the motorway at Ferrybridge between Knottingley and Pontefract where I crossed the River Aire and the Aire and Calder Canal. The power station cooling towers were impressive, even awful, viewed in the grey evening light. This was a built up bottleneck; I was also passing between Leeds East and Sherburn in Elmet airspace to the east and Leeds Bradford to the west. I climbed higher. Charlotte, at a service station nearby saw me as a tiny figure flying over the cooling towers and wind farms (though in fact I was well off to the side), and thought, she said, that I looked 'very vulnerable'. She had a point; I felt vulnerable until I was back over countryside!
Onwards southwards; and in due course I came to Barlborough, finding an uplanted field just to the north. By then the wind had dropped to nothing. It was a fast landing; I pitched forward on hitting the ground, but all was well. It was dark by the time the gear was stowed.
Thanks to What'sApp GPS location exchange, Charlotte and Gina were with me within moments. When all was tidied up, Gina set off back south for a family weekend, having been a tremendous support, encouragement and friend. We were sorry to see her go. Charlotte and I found a hotel in Worksop, and slept well! A long day, and progress so far, we thought was good.