A good number of Thursday regulars turned up to fly today including Dave Perriam and Rob Rand. Although they could not fly Dave spent all day in the winch earning rave reviews for his launching and Rob kept everything well under control in the Launch Point Vehicle, thank you both!
With a Westerly wind it was a relatively easy decision in terms of where to position the launch point and whilst the two K21s and a Junior were brought out of the hangar various private gliders were soon having their covers taken off.
With a Westerly wind it was a relatively easy decision in terms of where to position the launch point and whilst the two K21s and a Junior were brought out of the hangar various private gliders were soon having their covers taken off.
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| Orderly launch point (Mike Horwood) |
With a well-organised launch point by mid-morning gliders were soon being launched towards the West and as ever it was a question of trying to find elusive lift off the winch launch. With cloudbase not much more than 1500ft above the airfield and the ridge only working here and there, as well as the thermals being a tad tricky, no surprise that at times the skies to the West of the airfield were rather busy with a number of gliders. Most pilots had an element of success during the morning until under grey skies the lift mostly switched off meaning a steady stream of landings and retrieves.
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| Building skies (Mike Sloggett) |
After a socially distanced lunch and with the skies looking a little more promising, the afternoon saw Club and private gliders being relaunched - but with the conditions still proving “interesting” and enough lift to ‘scratch around for quite a bit longer than an extended circuit. Andrew Logan in FMS had the longest flight of the day of 1hr43.
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| North Hill has 'greened up' after the rain (Mike Horwood) |
By late afternoon everyone that could fly had done so and it was time to put gliders back under their covers or into the hangar.
A day when the conditions needed focus both to make the most of the lift available and also to maintain a good lookout for other gliders and aircraft - a good day all round. - Mike Sloggett
A day when the conditions needed focus both to make the most of the lift available and also to maintain a good lookout for other gliders and aircraft - a good day all round. - Mike Sloggett
