Blue sky and sunshine greeted us at the club although a distant bank of cloud to the north west was a slight concern for those intending to depart for places far afield given an encouraging forecast.
The launch point was set up in the south west corner and flying started from there with Fran Knowles being put through her paces by Ron Johns before flying the K21 solo and thoughtfully bringing it back after a short soaring flight so that others could fly. Meanwhile David Herbert completed Card Checks and had a long soaring flight in the Junior.
CFI Martin was keeping John Sillett alert in the K13 on 5 year checks. The DG505 went off on a cross country, so club flying had to work around the K21s so the list didn't progress as rapidly as we would have liked to see on a good soaring day. JB pitched in enthusiastically for the afternoon session and amongst others Will Stainer was introduced to the art of spin recovery.
3 trial lessons were flown including a mile high and all enjoyed soaring flights with strong thermals but also inevitably there were areas of serious sink. - Peter Smith
With the first day of a ridge of high pressure and light northeasterly winds forecast, RASP was also going for reasonable conditions with a south coast convergence forecast, the North Hill soaring section set off on cross-countries led by Pete Startup in 230 on the Club 200.
The launch point was set up in the south west corner and flying started from there with Fran Knowles being put through her paces by Ron Johns before flying the K21 solo and thoughtfully bringing it back after a short soaring flight so that others could fly. Meanwhile David Herbert completed Card Checks and had a long soaring flight in the Junior.
CFI Martin was keeping John Sillett alert in the K13 on 5 year checks. The DG505 went off on a cross country, so club flying had to work around the K21s so the list didn't progress as rapidly as we would have liked to see on a good soaring day. JB pitched in enthusiastically for the afternoon session and amongst others Will Stainer was introduced to the art of spin recovery.
3 trial lessons were flown including a mile high and all enjoyed soaring flights with strong thermals but also inevitably there were areas of serious sink. - Peter Smith
With the first day of a ridge of high pressure and light northeasterly winds forecast, RASP was also going for reasonable conditions with a south coast convergence forecast, the North Hill soaring section set off on cross-countries led by Pete Startup in 230 on the Club 200.
Other early launchers were John Pursey and Nick Jones in the Eagle, Matthew Williamson in 611, Tom Sides in DG1, James Hood and Paul Summers in JZK, Pete Bennett in HEB. Cloud base was still quite low at Chard and most headed back for the better conditions at North Hill. Pete Startup caught the better weather up, but the Eagle didn't have the pace to get out of the spreadout near the Cerne Abbas giant and landed near Dorchester.
Meanwhile James Flory in 877 had set off with a 50km attempt in mind to Sherborne. Visitor Andrew Cluskey in his Shark Turbo turned Bovingdon and then headed west but had to turn the jet on to avoid the small fields at Ivybridge. Two hours later Pete & Jill in OL set off to the east turning The Park and Cullompton.
Cloudbase never got very high and the strong sink was always a little challenging, for some reason the south coast convergence never materialised except in the minds of the Lashamites who arrived en-masse in Devon and Cornwall.
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| James after completing his Silver distance (Jill Harmer) |
Congratulations to James Flory for completing his Silver distance. - J&P
