By the time of the first launch at 11:00, it had began to rain and clear up three times! At one point the low cloud rolled along the airfield from the west up to the Beech tree but within 5 minutes had all but disappeared, good old North Hill weather! The time wasn't wasted though as the Junior FZF was rigged and parked at the back of the hangar having spent the last few days in it's trailer having had the annual completed at the weekend.
Rigging FZF with the Beech tree reappearing (Mark Layton)
The days flying was constantly plagued with low cloud and waves with fine rain showers passing over or around the airfield but all those present made the most of it, with many having extended circuits aided by lift from the south and then the west ridges as the wind direction changed during the day.
Getting artistic in the Perkoz (Mark Layton)
The upper wind strength was relatively strong compared to that on the ground and a number of cable weak links decided to part company towards the top of the launch. Chris Warnes & Dan Hender took turns flying the DG505 solo, Glenn Turpin played tricks on Julian West by covering various instruments and Martin Woolner took Mark Layton for a ballast trip for the longest flight of the day at 32 minutes.
The usual wash and brushup (Mark Layton)
The rest of the Wednesday crowd all flew either solo or continued with their training. In all 31 flights were completed by the time flying came to a halt at just after 16:00 as the rain become too heavy to carry on and as per normal as the hangar doors were closed it stopped & the sky brightened up! - Mark Layton
