"Better safe than sorry"
On a day of blue skies and hazy cloud with an evident South Easterly wind direction the launch point was set up in the North West corner of the field. Both K21s and a Junior were taken out of the hangar and walked down to the other end of the field and flying started mid morning.
Despite the strength of the wind other than the expected wind gradient encouraging sensible circuit planning and particularly to not go too far back behind the hill, instructors reported generally smooth flying conditions.
On a day of blue skies and hazy cloud with an evident South Easterly wind direction the launch point was set up in the North West corner of the field. Both K21s and a Junior were taken out of the hangar and walked down to the other end of the field and flying started mid morning.
Despite the strength of the wind other than the expected wind gradient encouraging sensible circuit planning and particularly to not go too far back behind the hill, instructors reported generally smooth flying conditions.
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| The calm before the storm (Mike Sloggett) |
The flying list was steadily worked through as the
morning progressed with the DG505 being brought down to allow an aerotow
Trial Lesson to be completed by Paul Summers.
As lunchtime arrived the wind started to strengthen and veer making the launches and approaches more and more interesting as the afternoon unfolded. Soon it became evident that to continue flying in the rather unpredictable conditions, with instructors reporting a turbulent approach and a wide range of both strong lift and even stronger sink on same, would not be appropriate and the gliders were walked back to the safer surroundings of the hangar.
As lunchtime arrived the wind started to strengthen and veer making the launches and approaches more and more interesting as the afternoon unfolded. Soon it became evident that to continue flying in the rather unpredictable conditions, with instructors reporting a turbulent approach and a wide range of both strong lift and even stronger sink on same, would not be appropriate and the gliders were walked back to the safer surroundings of the hangar.
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| The long walk back to the hangar (Mike Sloggett) |
Much discussion over mugs of tea then ensued with
agreement that whilst flying might have continued it is always better to
wonder what might have happened than to be dealing with what had
actually happened..... Mike Sloggett
A big thank you to Pete Startup for spending most of the day changing the radio in LRD.
