Another weekend washed out, hey ho…
As glider pilots one of the challenges at this time of year is trying to work out from the forecasts as to how the weather is likely to help or hinder flying. And often it is a guess one way or another, sometimes right, sometimes wrong.
Today was one of those days, it was always going to be a question of how quickly the rain would move through during the morning and in turn how much rain would have settled on the airfield.
No surprise that down in the valleys around North Hill the weather first thing was reasonable but the airfield was surrounded by low cloud - with the surface not looking too bad waterwise it seemed that it would simply be a matter of patience whilst the cloud disappeared.
James Flory teaching weather (Mike Sloggett)
Ground school briefings on weather forecasting were completed during the morning and just after a suggestion that the general airmass would probably see more sharp showers - we had one! Which delayed any decision on the possibility of flying whilst we allowed the airfield to dry up a bit…
More discussions followed, mainly centred on what the day ahead might bring weatherwise and with much reviewing of any and all weather information to find some positive encouragement for those members patiently waiting to fly.
At lunchtime a field inspection by Mike Sloggett and James Flory resulted in a decision that flying was possible but not recommended, with a soggy surface and more rain on the radar - so disappointingly another weekend of no flying due to weather - but at least we now have more members able to guess as to the likelihood of flying taking place on a particular day! - Mike Sloggett
