Wednesday was unfortunately a non-flying day courtesy of the all too familiar and seemingly never-ending inclement weather. Thankfully though wave prospects for the rest of the week were looking good. Wyn with W7 arrived late afternoon as did several other pilots throughout the day from Wattisham whose expedition to the Long Mynd had had to be abandoned due the airfield being deemed too waterlogged. Waterlogged airfields not surprisingly seem to have been a bit of a theme this winter! A few other pilots also began arriving ahead of G Dale's XC course next week so all of a sudden we no longer had Lleweni Parc to ourselves.
After a well attended briefing on Thursday, flying commenced with the first launch around 11'ish.
Chris Gill creeping up on DG505 (John Pursey)
The wave was a bit on the weak side with 4kts lift at the very best. Most of the aerotows were to around 2,200ft making contact with the wave over Denbigh. Wyn in W7 had a 5hr flight maxing out at 8,500ft. Pete Startup in 230 went out and around the Great Orme topping out at 14,400ft.
Great Orme (John Pursey)
JB in JB pushed forward and up to Conway Bridge, flight time 3hrs, maximum height 12,000ft whilst Phil Hardwick had an hour in his DG300. John Pursey and Alan Rappaport in the DG505 made it up to Conway West and a height of 12,000ft before scurrying back to the airfield along with pretty much everyone else as things started to over-develop.
Conwy Valley (John Pursey)
John Pursey and Shaun Dayman took a late launch in the DG505 as things started to open up a bit, however the wave by this time had started to breakdown with only intermittent and weak lift. A bit of formation flying with Chris Gill in EZE provided for some consolation.
A great day's flying with an improving wave forecast for the next couple of days. - Shaun Dayman
