The small group of Wednesday flyers were greeted by a welcome mild light South Easterly wind but high cloud cover suggested little chance of thermic activity. With Glenn off ill and Peter Smith away it fell to Guy Adams to run the day. The ground equipment, two K21’s and a SZD Junior were all DI'd and ready for Guy’s daily briefing at 9:30, then off to the West end to set up a NW to SE winch launch run.
The launch heights were decent into the SE wind but the first five flights were all quite short. RASP had predicted some thermic activity around mid-day but with 8/8 cloud cover it didn’t look good for that prediction. By late morning the clouds started to organise themselves into crosswind lines south of the field indicating low level wave. Guy with Jonathan Erskine were the first to make use of the weak wave with a 31 minute flight. Jeff Taberham in the Junior then launched as an early lunch break was called. Jeff landed just as the small team reassembled after lunch two hours later. The afternoon progressed with more long flights as the wave lift continued, eventually proving difficult to reach after about 15:30. A strong inversion at about 2,300ft limited the height gains and the wave could be difficult to locate as the cloud markers merged and the best lift kept moving.
 |
| A quick hop back to Dunkeswell for R151 (Stu Procter) |
Stu Procter came in via the Cub R151, jumped out and took a glider flight with Peter Warren, and then flew off again. A slow puncture in the Gator was spotted at lunchtime and thanks to Ashley and Dave it was taken to Honiton by Ashley and should be ready for the Thursday crew.
Because it was a short two-seater list, everyone was able to get multiple flights, or at least a lengthy single flight. A total of 6 solo flights and 14 dual. Eight hours of flight time and all back in the hangar by 5 pm. Big thanks to Guy for running a successful day. What an excellent day, and sorry if you missed it. - Tom Sides & John Borland (ed mashup)
