With a number of early arrivals from keen members, the hangar was being unpacked at 9am, with the launchpoint set up at the west end, and due to the extensive flying list all six gliders were walked to the far end. However, we had a SSE wind, which had a tendency to flip to a tail wind, so there was an early morning briefing from duty instructor James Flory to be cautious.
The first launch was taken at 10:22, by Connor Williams with James, not returning for 31 mins! The morning then continued with various instructors working their way through the two-seater flying list.
We had two cable breaks between 12-1pm which meant those already airborne were told to stay up, much to their delight! John Borland achieving 98mins.
Hoping for the elusive south easterly wave (Sally Hender)
By mid-morning the breeze had grown considerably with testing gusts. The day started as it went on with cable breaks but it was worth the wait to get airborne and seek the elusive wave lift.
Timing it right Peter Smith and Andy Davey (Peter Smith)
Those who timed it right (luck) had extended flights and lift up to nearly 3,000ft QFE. The gusting crosswind stayed obstinately at exactly that and coupled with persistent cable breaks progress through the flowing list was slow going.
Caption competition? (Sally Hender)
Flying then continued into and through the afternoon, with the card colour changing to blue. We then suffered two more cable breaks, courtesy of the DG505, which held up proceedings further. Once spliced, we tried again to launch, only to be stopped by the same glider doing a hangar landing, which then stopped too close to the cables! I’m naming no names, you know who you are!
Elusive wave to 3000ft above North Hill (Peter Smith)
The wave collapsed late afternoon but the south ridge then worked strongly until the low sun and descending cloud base brought flying to a halt an hour or so before sunset
We finally finished flying at 4.30pm, with a total of 33 flights. Thank you to everyone for their efforts today, there was a VERY long flying list, but we more or less made it to the end! Our Chairman is planning cable renewal tomorrow or on Tuesday, thanks Nick and the gang. - Sally Hender & Peter Smith
