"Today just goes to show..."
Around mid afternoon on Monday the general level of optimism for any flying on Tuesday was rather minimal - all the weather forecasts suggested a strong likelihood of rain at various stages throughout the day and with a "low risk" warning of thunderstorms to also be considered. As a result during Monday evening the course instructors were spending time looking at a plan for a day of briefings.
The course members had been advised "not to rush" on Tuesday morning so were somewhat surprised to arrive at the Club under sunny skies with patches of blue amongst the patchy high cloud cover and with Roly Clarke and Richard Harris having optimistically set up the winch and launch point for the North East/South West run respectively. With a look at the weather forecast suggesting rain by mid morning the decision was made to take the K21s and a Junior out of the hangar and complete as much flying as possible before the forecast rain arrived.
Around mid afternoon on Monday the general level of optimism for any flying on Tuesday was rather minimal - all the weather forecasts suggested a strong likelihood of rain at various stages throughout the day and with a "low risk" warning of thunderstorms to also be considered. As a result during Monday evening the course instructors were spending time looking at a plan for a day of briefings.
The course members had been advised "not to rush" on Tuesday morning so were somewhat surprised to arrive at the Club under sunny skies with patches of blue amongst the patchy high cloud cover and with Roly Clarke and Richard Harris having optimistically set up the winch and launch point for the North East/South West run respectively. With a look at the weather forecast suggesting rain by mid morning the decision was made to take the K21s and a Junior out of the hangar and complete as much flying as possible before the forecast rain arrived.
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| And one by one, the gliders were walked down the field (Mike Sloggett) |
Gliders
were duly walked down to the other end and during which journey it was
evident that the valleys around the airfield were full of fog - by the
time the gliders were ready for launching and before one could say 'up
slack' a rather eerie orographic cloud had moved rapidly up and across
the airfield delaying a start to the day's flying.
 |
| Where did that come from? (Mike Sloggett) |
And then as
quickly as it had arrived it had dissipated and the first launches of
the day were away - whilst 'simply circuits' nevertheless the cloudbase
required appropriate circuit planning.
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| Flying at last (Mike Sloggett) |
Mid morning and a light
but persistent rain shower resulted in an extended break for 'coffee and
cake' during which time various briefings were completed by the course
instructors in and amongst suitable looking out of the windows to see if
the weather was improving enough to allow more flying to be completed.
Late morning and it was decided to start flying again - a few flights later and the next rain shower arrived but at a suitable time to stop for lunch. Post lunch and with the rain having stopped, concurrently with the forecast indicating that there would not be rain until late afternoon, it was back down to the other end of the field to start flying again.
And it was soon evident that the course was missing a few members - the lure of the gliding simulator had won their attention over and above the discussion topics in the clubhouse and they had not been told about the re-start of flying for the afternoon!
The afternoon saw more training flights being completed in the K21s whilst Paul Kane and Rob Rand enjoyed having a Junior all to themselves, each consolidating their solo flying. Towards the end of the afternoon it became clear that further rain was moving ever closer from the South so the decision was made to stop flying for the day.
Late morning and it was decided to start flying again - a few flights later and the next rain shower arrived but at a suitable time to stop for lunch. Post lunch and with the rain having stopped, concurrently with the forecast indicating that there would not be rain until late afternoon, it was back down to the other end of the field to start flying again.
And it was soon evident that the course was missing a few members - the lure of the gliding simulator had won their attention over and above the discussion topics in the clubhouse and they had not been told about the re-start of flying for the afternoon!
The afternoon saw more training flights being completed in the K21s whilst Paul Kane and Rob Rand enjoyed having a Junior all to themselves, each consolidating their solo flying. Towards the end of the afternoon it became clear that further rain was moving ever closer from the South so the decision was made to stop flying for the day.
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| It looks wet from the hangar (Mike Sloggett) |
As was
evident by the smiles in the clubhouse, over a cup of tea to finish the
day, one of those days when every flight (and there were quite a few of
them today) was one more than everyone had been expecting based on the
weather forecast. - Mike Sloggett
