Fresh southwesterly winds can be feisty at North Hill and with Storm Ciara coming, Saturday had promise to be fun... The field was quickly laid out by the usual Saturday stalwarts (thank you!) and flying started with a deceptively gentle breeze from the SW.
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| First launch with blue skies (James Hood) |
Under blue skies, the first launch with Mark Wallis had that wave-like feel as the launch went on and on. At 1,700ft we clicked off into gently buoyant air over the valley. Shame it was card check time... in fact shame all round because with Martin Woolner giving Robin Willis-Fleming cable breaks and Mark Courtney grilling instructor trainees from Brentor, the soaring potential went untapped.
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| Mares Tails (Mark Courtney) |
On cue, per the forecast, the wind at ground level picked up and after a particularly bobbly looking approach by the Junior, the blue pennant was raised.
The Brentor boys got their testing as did Simon Leeson on 5 yr checks with CFI Stuart and with Glenn Turpin turning up early for his pm instructor stint the list was whittled down.
So what of the soaring? - My remote bullying of the turbo boys last week to go try the Quantocks had spectacularly failed with JB going to a car show and Phil washing his hair so I can only wonder what it was like.
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| Rowan soaring the south coast (Rowan Smith) |
At least the Falke went cliff soaring for a while and Rowan Smith came back with tales of the engine off and good lift near Sidmouth.
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| Simon and Dan also explored the south coast in the Falke (Simon Leeson) |
At North Hill clouds started to pop, and for an hour the lucky few spiralled and turned in feisty thermals which streeted to give little energy lines.
Paul Summers bravely took yours truly as ballast in the Perky to “critique” and dog fight the K21s and Junior. Despite the interesting crosswind approaches and lack of reliable ridge lift, the day was a good one with flying for all and when light rain arrived the kit was all but away.
Thanks as ever to Alan Turner and Team Hender for getting us going and the myriad of retrieve drivers for all the simulated launch failure retrieves. 30 flights in all - John Pursey
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| Found in the webcam housing (Rowan Smith) |
And on the ground, Rowan got the webcams working better.....
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| New bigger tractor for the field leveling work (Jill Harmer) |
and Nick Jones and Peter Smith inspected the new 'Big Boys Toy', whilst work continues with the Simulator upgrade. -J&P
