The day started cold and blustery with the prospect of a few showers. - As it was, only one shower passed by North Hill and caused little disruption to flying.
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| Good to see Lisa out - Lovely hat |
A nailed on Blue card day, the gusty surface wind was around 18kts to start with but it did moderate just a little about mid-afternoon. Early gusts up to 28kts kept everybody on their toes. Wind speed at flying height was around 35kts.
The upside was that the ridge was working very well in the westnorthwesterly wind and during the afternoon there were a fair few thermals, most of them difficult to use but some of surprising strength given the lack of sun on the ground. Best height was around 2,800' QFE.
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| James Hood and Stu Procter |
Pete Startup in 230 had the longest flight (I'm getting desperate, long Winter!), at just over 3 hours before getting bored with not being able to go anywhere given the wind strength - unless you count Cullompton out and return as a x-c flight!
Richard Roberts and Roger Green from Brentor came to continue their BI training with Mark Courtney, several people had card check flights and a bit of mutual 2-seat flying happened as well. Dan Hender tried his best to empty the flying account that Dad Rob had just topped up!
Sally Hender ran the LPV, Aston Key and Chris Mew were Duty Launch Marshalls, JP, James Flory, Stu Procter and Martin Woolner sat in the back and as always lots of others kept it all ticking along. Thanks to everybody today - a good day - 23 launches and nearly 15 hours soaring in total. - Pete Startup
