H5 Matthew was first on-line in a busy grid and quickly assumed the position of 0 ft QFE on the ridge along with Rowan in his Libelle. The next few gliders to launch joined in until the 'duvets' got in the way. Shortly after launching, Stuart in MV reported contacting the wave just off of the ridge, and pilots were soon reporting wave straight off of the launch. The retrieve winch made short work of the long queue, and everything that went up stayed up. Max height in the wave was 6100 ft QNH. Other North Hill pilots to join in the fun were Roger Appleboom K6, Rowan Libelle, Birthday Boy Summers in 477, Toms Sides DG1, and Henry Ford JD7.
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| Paul in 477 |
Mr Sloggs arrived today after a long, long trip towing ENW, trailer still dirty from James' field landing last weekend. He then helped rig and clean the glider, and tow it to the launch point. It was at this point that Mark C jumped in it and flew it all morning leaving Mike to share an 'introduction to The Mynd' flight with Simon L.
Dan Welch offered to take a North Hill member for a flight in the Arcus, so a very excited looking John B hopped in. They managed a 128 km flight in wave into Wales but were scuppered by 8/8ths over west Wales.
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| John B with Dan Welch |
By the time the afternoon arrived, conditions changed markedly. Slowly everyone scuttled back to the ridge, but even that stopped working and by early afternoon everyone was back on the ground after some flights of 3+ hours. After watching Dave manage nothing more than circuits for a couple of hours, club member Roger managed to find a couple of weak thermals in his DFS Olympia Meise. Nick Harrison was inspired and had a few more flights in the club Discus. Unfortunately he couldn't repeat Roger’s success.
It was at around 4pm that Simon L and Mark C arrived back from drinking coffee and announced that ‘there’s wave up there’. Simon insisted he could ‘keep it up’ and launched in ENW only to return a few minutes later. However by this time, the contagious optimism had taken over and everyone wanted a launch. Unfortunately it was all in vain, and everyone ended back up on the ground shortly after launch. The wind then started to change direction and flying was abandoned for the day.
After the gliders were put away, Simon L, Mark C, Stuart P and Matthew Wi decided they hadn’t flown enough models so far this week and went off to find a ridge that would work in a northerly wind. They found themselves enveloped in mist and were eventually ‘retrieved’ by Paul S, Mike S and Tim P. The swearing, shouting and giggling was heard a long time before they were seen. ‘Gorillas in the Mist’ came to mind...
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| The mist descended! |
Fish’n’chips finished off the Long Mynd Wednesday followed by sheep shaped birthday cake.
Another great day at the Mynd. A poorer forecast for tomorrow... but there’s always coffee to drink and Mark C storytelling to listen to.
