With a transient ridge and cold advection forecast, there was a lot of expectation for a good soaring day. The Thursday regulars were joined by Junior members on Easter hols.......
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| Some of the DSGC Junior Members (Mark C) |
.........and a large number of private owners. But after a cold start, the crosswind from the north proved a little tricky and stronger than expected. The first flights struggled to get much height on the launch and flights were rather short.
Private owners were out in force rigging enthusiastically, but then all parked up for tea waiting for trigger temperature.
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| Sky starting to look good (Ali F) |
The thermals started just after 11:00, cloudbase was still quite low, but it soon perked up with cloudbase rising fast, thermal strength rising - and so was the sink!
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| Josh picks a good day for his return to gliding (Peter Sm) |
13 Private owners started taking launches and some got away first time but others had relights. Matt M5 completed the longest task Dulverton, Okehampton, Roadford, Dorchester, Cadbury Cross for 321Km, with Pete in 230, Ron in 611, and Martin in KMV following a similar theme, enjoying the stunning views of Devon and Dorset.
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| Stunning views of the South coast (James) |
Cloudbase eventually topped out at 5200ft, allowing Joe to claim a Silver height in 877. Unfortunately, with the fresh crosswind the other silver hunters missed out, having had to wait for the wind conditions to improve, which it eventually did - at tea-time.
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| John B goes solo (Jill) |
Once we had some calmer conditions, Congratulations to John B for his first solo, and to Lizzie for converting to the Junior. Jess was also able to fly the K6 having had to keep it parked for most of the day. Congratulations also to Pete H for completing 10,000 launches on a flight with Rob.
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| Lizzie converts to Junior (Jordan) |
We welcomed Steve and son Greg who are flying on next week's course, Jordan from Lasham and David who enjoyed his Trial lesson flight.
Thanks to all for staying late to enable everyone to fly - 58 launches and 53 hours flying with Martin having the longest flight in KMV 4hrs 36mins. - J&P
