For most members, the trip to the Club this morning was in glorious sunshine after the clearance of the heavy overnight rain. Unfortunately at North Hill the sun had set off the process of creating fog over the hill, with another 14mm of rain yesterday making 73mm for the week - there was a lot to moisture to evaporate in the lower levels.
 |
FZF with shiny new canopy (Mike Horwood)
|
The morning was spent rigging Junior FZF that has just come back from Tim Dewes with a lovely new canopy, and derigging Junior LRD for it's Annual in the workshop.
 |
A plea from Inspectors / Maintainers to clean bottoms after flying (Mike Horwood)
|
The fog lifted into orographic cloud with the wind picking up a little, and inspections of the pitch were undertaken. It was decided that aerotow only to start with would be best (thanks to Robert Lee for standing in for Mark Courtney), and then after a further inspection of the winch run, the winch was carefully positioned to ensure the cable retrieve did not go through any soft spots.
 |
North Hill airfield with grass growing on the new levelled areas in the short weather window (Mike Sloggett)
|
A cloud street set up in the light southwesterly wind which allowed most flights to extend, in fact John Borland had the longest flight of 39 mins after being called down from 3000ft and 10kts on the vario, with the hope that everyone would fly.
 |
Reduced price aerotows until the winch was able to operate (Mike Horwood)
|
Not to be - as the next band of forecast rain could be seen progressing across the valley towards North Hill ahead of forecast, and the day had to be cut short just after 15:00, so sorry to the members who missed out on flying today. - Thank you to everyone for making the most of what we could in 2 hours - 8 aerotows and 5 winch launches. - J&P
