Sunday's part of the expedition to Halesland saw three intrepid aviators (Leith Whittington, Sam Deeks and Martin Cropper) rendezvous at Okehampton Services at 0730, arriving at Mendip 90 minutes later, just in time to witness the opening of the hangar doors by the home team and Don Puttock and Roger Appleboom, accompanied by the predicted fog/low cloud.
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| Ready to go |
But no need to worry - Leith said it would clear by 0900. Which it didn't. By 1030 it was a case of 'pick your window, your launching through it' and we managed to get Martin and Roger away for a couple of short flights before the fingers of cloud reached up the gully to the S of the site and we waited.
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| Gorillas in the mist ( well Martin, Don and Leith actually ) |
Until Leith reminded Don that what he really needed was launch failures and it was game on! Two flights into cloud at 500' and a third where the K-13 weaved its way between the layers up the launch (VFR, officer? Of course - no-one else would be flying in that!) got Leith into the launch failure mindset before it was Sam's turn - who actually managed a little soaring on the ridge/quarry to S of the site before various layers of cloud met in the middle/bottom/top and reluctantly we had to call it a day at 1515.
A very interesting experience and one which would be well worth repeating - on a no cloud day!
Thanks go to Barry Hogarth, Patrick Haxell, Jack, Con and all others of the Mendip team for making us so very welcome.
Martin Cropper
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