The question today was not is it going to rain, but … when? The Met Office
chart showed a warm front crossing the SW peninsula at about 1300 local. The BBC
(which no longer uses the Met Office for its science) forecast cloud/rain from
1530. Bets on the field fell from anytime after 1400. And so, under a breezy
westerly, albeit 7/8 cloud cover, we got the kit out.
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| Met Office Forecast for today. |
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| Richard Roberts and Dave Downton tow K-13 HXP to the east end under an interesting sky. |
And there was every reason
to do so, with Gordon Dennis's friend from Shennington Clive Smith plus Dave
Downton's F&F to fly we would have been remiss not to... Hopes were high
throughout the morning, particularly in view of the westerly delivering launch
heights of around 1,400ft, however, by 1230 it had to be admitted that: a.
cloudbase was reducing, b. there was actually precipitation in the atmosphere
and c. the view in a westerly direction was not improving.
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Our visitor today was Dave Downton’s daughter, Jo Harvey,
seen here with son Samuel and IFP Roger Appleboom. |
Hence, after a brief
2 hour pause to see if things would improve, we returned K-13 HXP to the hangar
for a thorough wipe down and spent a very happy half hour in the clubhouse
watching a TV programme “Sailing in the Sky” provided by Rich Roberts, before
deciding that we couldn't put off going home any longer...
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Returning member Dave Parker shows off our latest H&S initiative:
a strop identifier (aka a plastic milk bottle!) |
Highlight of the Day, in addition to Clive Smith's longest flight at 8 mins,
was Jo Harley's flight with Roger Appleboom. Jo (Joanna) is Dave Downton's
daughter and was not sufficiently hampered by son Samuel to prevent herself from
aviating with IFP Roger Appleboom – indeed she declared she might become our
next full flying female member..!
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| The situation at 1230: cloud begins to envelop Brentor Church. |
Martin Cropper
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