A forecast transient ridge on Thursday gave hope for some flying all day, but there were delays first thing with canopies still too cold to clear in the damp air.
With Peter Smith and Mark Layton busy on the winch launch with check flights /simulated failures, on the first aerotow, Mark Courtney reported some orographic cloud foming on the west ridge. As the morning wore on there was still plenty of clear air out to the west, but cloud lowered to 1500ft over the airfield.
The wind started picking up from the south by late lunchtime, as forecast, and the restart was met by the start of some drizzle which brought an early end to proceedings.
Most people flew, but not quite everyone unfortunately.
Condor Racing
The regular Tuesday and Friday races were supplemented this week with some of the Wednesday regulars taking to the virtual skies.
On Tuesday and Friday, the task was a slalom sprint in the Slovenian Alps practising energy conservation with fast flying using flaps in a Diana. There were 12 narrow gates in the 110km route at varying heights to suit the terrain - some only 300/400ft high, and a tortuous route to follow.
The key to getting an efficient race was to convert speed and ridge lift into height at the right time, with out having to waste energy s-turning to gain height, or using airbrakes to dump it.
With two runs on Tuesday and another two on Friday, everyone was getting the hang of it with Stewart Henshall, Dan Hender, Chris Warnes and David Clements recording the best times of just under 30 minutes, with Jill and Pete Harmer, Geoff Lawrence and John Davies taking a slightly more leisurely route.
On Wednesday, it was a task up and down the Rhone valley with a very technically challenging aerotow to start, most of us were flying Discus 2a with Matt Howard in a EB29. It was another task where getting the energy spot-on was key to a good time. Chris had a slight advantage as he had tried it out last week. - J&P
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