After yesterday's almost continuous drizzle, today was refreshing. Dawn brought sunshine under endless blue skies. The wind was light and mostly northerly. The soaring forecast was hopeful and so were the club members heading for the club to get the equipment out and ready to go. As there was a little east in the wind forecast it was decided to fly from the west end.
The cumulus cloud started to develop early which mystified early flyers when they struggled to soar. My first flight in the K13 revealed the reason. There was wave in the area with sink ( 8 knots+ ) just north and east of the airfield and rotors all over the place. This system was moving around and this, and the north ridge which was working, would randomly suppress and augment the building thermals.
During the early afternoon the thermals were strong enough to be consistent and some good soaring was had before an area of spreadout cut off the whole of the area and once more made things difficult. Best flight of the day was by Mike Gadd in the Open Cirrus. He set off on a 186 km cross country flight from Brentor to Holsworthy to Wellington and back to Brentor. This task was abandoned early on when he realised that the sea air had already cut him off from Holsworthy. He went to Crediton instead when conditions changed and gave him a very difficult time for a while until he found a thermal which carried him to 5000 feet above sea level for a straight glide home. He was airborn for 2 hours 35 minutes.
 |
The view across Roadford towards Mike's first turnpoint at Holsworthy,
out of reach, cut-off by the sea breeze. |
 |
| Heading east over Okehampton |
 |
| Crossing the moor over the highest point of Yes Tor |
 |
| Black-a-Tor Copse and West Okement Valley |
Other notable flights were Adrian Irwin in the club Zugvogel who reached Silver height ( 1000 meter height gain ) during his one hour flight. Take a logger with you next time Adrian. And the prize for the shortest solo flight from a full height launch goes to Simon Collier for a mighty 3 minutes in the Zugvogel.
 |
Simon celebrates his flight in the Zugvogel
( or is that "drowns his sorrows ) |
Visitors today saw us welcome Judith Taylor, Neville Cheesman, and David Westcott. Judith and Neville enjoyed air experience flights with me in K13 G-DDMX and David completed a One Day Course at the end of which he was able to fly the glider around the circuit; not a mean feat in the bouyant conditions. All left the airfield with smiles on their faces.
 |
| One Day Course Candidate David Westcott |
Many thanks to those who helped make today special. Special thanks are due to Steve Raine who supplied great winch launches for most of the day.
Steve
No comments:
Post a Comment