The final day of our first course this summer was a corker! Beautiful blue sky and a light north easterly breeze, with a few cumulus popping quite early, but it was lunchtime before the thermals were really usable.
Having seen that RASP was giving a slow start, the course members enjoyed a lecture on identifying soaring weather and calculating the cloud base to be about 2800ft. What came to pass proved that forecasts aren't always spot on.
Once the soaring got started - it just got better and better, with east-west streeting, convergences and cloudbases to 5000ft.
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| An empty launchpoint for most of the afternoon, with a cracking sky |
The solo pilots on the course Chris C, MarkW and Rick all enjoyed soaring flights in the Junior, with Mark and Rick completing their 2 hour flights for Cross-country endorsement. Rob R, Richard D and Douglas all enjoyed long cross-country flights around the Blackdowns in the two-seaters.
Several Club members arrived to use spare cables, and Peter B in K6 had the longest flight of the day 3hrs 18mins and also achieved his 2 hour flight for Cross-country endorsement.
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| Peter Bennett with a cheesy grin |
Matt in M5 and Pete in 230 whizzed round the hugely underset task of the new Club 100 NHL - TIV - CRK - NHL(at 93 and 91kph), and then went round the old Club 100 NHL - TIE - YEO -NHL(at 95 and 86kph), completing with a flourish of a syncro flyby.
A fantastic end to the course that started off with a duff day.
Final totals - 106 launches, with 37 hours flying.
Thanks to all the helpers - Tom, Gordon, Aston and Jill, and Instructors Pete, JB and Paul and Course members Douglas, Rob, Mark, Richard, Chris and Rick for a very enjoyable week.
And finally - the first swallow is back..... summer is really coming!
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| Course photo April 2014 |
And finally - the first swallow is back..... summer is really coming!
