If you were up early enough the sun was out and Richard Harris and Allan Mounce had all the ground equipment ready with the launch point set up. By the time the aircraft were out and DI'd a bank of orographic cloud was on the ridge and drizzle was in the air. After a while it all cleared to blue sky and sunshine only to cycle twice more during the morning.
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| Sheltering from the drizzle (Emma Kendall) |
Eventually with complete cloud cover, the cloudbase went up to a level that allowed some low launch failures for Doug and Andrew on the course, whilst others used the Simulator. After lunch, the cloudbase showed signs of getting a little higher and Wooly took an exploratory launch with Peter March in DG505, followed by Aston Key in Junior who managed to find some ridge lift and lift in the valley and achieved the longest flight of 42mins. Peter Field continued the launch failure scheme for Doug and Andrew, and Mike Sloggett attempted a full height launch with Richard Copus, but it wasn't long before they were all chased back down on the ground by some heavy showery rain. Having dried all the gliders again, a few more flights were attempted but the frequency of the showers finally beat us and the kit was returned to the hangar.
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| Mike Sloggett and Richard Copus waiting for a full height launch (Jill Harmer) |
Sorry for those who didn't get to fly, -blame the weather. - J&P
