A cold front cleared through overnight as forecast, leaving us in a very good airmass with a strong north west- westerly wind. RASP had been forecasting good conditions for Saturday over several days.
The launch point was setup near to the Clubhouse for a change and training flights in soarable conditions started apace.
During the morning there was hive of private glider rigging activity with 14 private gliders flown.
Cloudbase rapidly increased to 3000ft initially and later in the afternoon nearly 5000ft QFE. The wind was just a little strong for into-wind legs ~20knots but was producing excellent cloud streets with thermals 8-10knots. Although there did seem to be some wave interference in places and strong sink if you had to jump across the streets.
Pete St Discus 230 and James in ASW20 ENW set off on task Melbury Bubb, Culmstock, Okehampton, they both struggled with the into-wind leg, but Pete's experience kept him flying, whilst James fell out and landed by the A30 just short of Okehampton.
Pete & Jill in DuoDiscus OL followed the energy as usual (into wind first) and turned Eaglescott, then followed a wonderful street to Beaminster and back via Tiverton with 110km glide without turning.
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| Nice field (Simon L) |
Adrian in Jantar FDX had the longest flight of the day of just under 4 hours. Lisa enjoyed a short conversion to Lak 19T 1UP.
With 47 flights and 47 hours, the average flight time (including simulated launch failures) was 1 hour- with 11 members flying for more than 2 hours.
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| Lisa tried the Lak for size (Lisa) |
With 47 flights and 47 hours, the average flight time (including simulated launch failures) was 1 hour- with 11 members flying for more than 2 hours.
A great start (albeit a bit late) to the spring cross-country season. - J&P
