Friday evening saw thunderstorms with rain drops the size of mint imperials, Oh dear. Saturday morning dawned bright and breezy with the signs of the overnight rain still on the ground. The only question now was how long we had until the next front arrives in this infuriating westerly airflow which has been bringing a new frontal system every few days. Off to the airfield to find out.
After a couple of hours work I arrived at the airfield under a beautiful looking sky but the club was quiet. There were 5 members at the clubhouse end working on private glider inspections. On the airfield there were only 4 committing aviation in K13 G-CHXP. Club members had been put off by the pessimistic forecast. This is something they will regret.
But with the chance to soar the cloud streets and small convergences visible all over the sky I could not resist. We welcomed visitor Margaret Loker who arrived with a large family party spanning 4 generations. Young at heart Margaret enjoyed a couple of flights with IFP Rick Wiles.
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| Visitor Margaret Loker |
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| Rick and Chris discussing the camera positioning |
Although all of solo standard or higher the assembled pilots took advantage of the presence of instructor Ged Nevisky to explore some aspects of their flying. Chris Jones wanted to do some gentle aerobatics while checking out the latest positions for the in cockpit cameras. Several loops later produced some interesting video and this photo.
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| Chris at the top of his loop |
Rick flew with Ged to explore hangar landings using the ground effect after some soaring. With the quiet airfield this did not cause any problems, they were in the only aircraft after all. Interestingly, while we normally discuss the length of flight as being the best flight of the day, today the challenge was to get the highest number on the “averager”. This gives the average climb rate over the last 24 seconds. Rick beat me in this respect bettering my 4.5 knot climb with one of 5.3 knots.
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| K13 G-CHXP in the ground effect will eventually stop about 1km further down the runway |
And what did I do. Well I flew with David Bouchier. I really wanted to have a look at an interesting cloud street with a somewhat ragged edge. In my mind I pictured this as one of the many small convergences that pass through this area in a westerly to south westerly airflow. And it was. After a quick climb up to the 2200 ft cloudbase, we then soared along the southerly edge, climbing up the side of the clouds by about 600 feet before heading off up wind towards Launceston. There was strong lift the whole way. Great fun.
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| David and I heading towards the Tamar valley |
So there you have it. For all those pilots who did not attend today, you missed out on some astonishing soaring and easy local cross country in the day long conditions. For those who did attend, thanks for your help, and lets have some more fun like this really soon.
Steve
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