Thursday was a bit of a strange day. The forecast wasn't great but by 14:00 things were looking a bit more promising so some of us decided to launch. Although it wasn't raining on the ground it was certainly raining from the mid-level cloud to the base at 8500ft. W7 and 230 pushed forward towards the sun and hopefully the next wave bar. We did reach the sun but not the wave and on turning to run back for the home wave ran through some extremely sinky rotor and only just made it back to the airfield for a standard join and circuit - oops!
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| 230 & W7 pushing forwards (Wyn Davies) |
Meanwhile JB and M had more patience and sat in the rain until it cleared and they were rewarded with a nice flight to around 10,000ft with some beautiful views along the North Wales coast.
Friday proved to be another classic Denbigh wave day. Dropped straight into the wave at 2000ft near Denbigh the wave was very consistent, if not of the 'off the clock' variety. 230 climbed slowly to FL190 to enjoy the views across North Wales and Merseyside. Gliders flying further West in the mountains gave hints that showers may be coming our way so with the potential of the cloud closing in and reduced visibility a precautionary (and as it happened, prudent!), descent was made. 2 1/2 hours up, 15 minutes down! Andy in M,, JB, Phil and Nick DD3 and our temporary honorary member from Nympsfield Alan Price in his ASW28 AP also enjoyed similar experiences.
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| W7 climbing high (Wyn Davies) |
Saturday, we should have been driving home but with another good forecast we thought we'd have another quick flight before departing. Today was forecast to turn blue which it did which of course makes it trickier to find the wave with nothing to mark it. Luckily the first launchers, Wyn in W7 was the early bird, had some wispies to mark the edge and they became the wave markers for all the other gliders. Not quite the day forecast. the blue wave topped out at around 9,500ft but a lovely flight was enjoyed by all.
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| Easier with clouds (Wyn Davies) |
The real challenge of the flight today was the conditions for launch and landing, quote from Colin Ashman from ESGC - "Slight tail wind on the ground and probably 40 Knots headwind at 1000ft make for an interesting tow and redefines your understanding of wind gradient on landing". It was certainly the most "entertaining" tow I've had in a long time!
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| Some of the North Hill Nomads flights |
Time to go home said Zebedee so came the end of another great trip to Lleweni Parc - 6 days flying out of 7, lots of hours flown, tens of thousands of feet climbed in the wave, hundreds of kms on the ridge. Good banter, beer and food from head chef JP and the local pubs. - Pete Startup
