The weather forecast was looking reasonably good for today, with
RASP giving a '5 star' rating in the local area for an hour or two. The
view out of the window first thing in the morning looked good, but the
mist hanging in the valley soon rose up to the level of the club and
took an hour or so to clear. Tom S was busy planning a
cross country task while others began the task of rigging gliders - all
eight of them!
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| Rigged and ready to go (Mike Sl) |
Mark C who had spent the last couple of days being ill,
was finally looking slightly better and helped the Mynd pilots empty the
hangar before putting in a monumental retrieve winch stint.
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| Simon takes over retrieve winch from Mark (Mike Sl) |
Simon
L and Paul K took the first launch in the DG505 in the quest to get
Paul K 'checked' to fly the Junior solo at the Mynd. The private owners
hung around waiting for someone to stay up for longer than a circuit.
Simon L got busy flying with Chris M and Ray B. An hour later, Gordon B
caved and took a launch in DG100, but the ridge still just wasn't quite
working. Mike S found a similar problem a further hour later in his
second trip in ENW this year, followed by Tom S DG100 an hour later again.
Things started to perk up just before 3pm when Nick Ha DG202-17......
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| Nick in DG202-17 (Mike Sl) |
.......timed his launch
to perfection (weather skillz obviously) with what turned out to be the
longest flight of the day (2hr 30m). Following him was . . . well . .
everyone - Paul S, Gordon B, Tom S, Simon L and Tim P. From
this point onwards the ridge got busy with most gliders airborne and the
same number of paragliders. Ridge lift was weak, but unmarked thermals
were being generated by the warm slopes taking some up to 1800ft.
 |
| The Long Mynd (Mike Sl) |
Paul
K got a couple of flights in the Junior and Chris M and Ray B both had
their first Mynd solos in their glider DG100 LRN. Once Mike had
finished reacquainting himself with ENW, he finished the day by flying
with Paul K, David C and Nick Hi in the DG505.
There
were multiple flights of over an hour with grinning faces slowly
returning to the launch point around 5pm by which time the energy had
reduced.
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| ASW20 ENW and JZK DG505 (Simon L) |
We were treated
to a great Mynd sunset after eating fantastic food cooked by Faye and
Jane.
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| Great positioning for this lightning shot just before sunset (Paul K) |
There's a buzz of optimism in the air after the poor forecast
earlier in the week. Tomorrow is currently looking like it could be
acceptable too . . . happy Mynd days - Tim P
