Heading out to the airfield, the complex weather situation was immediately apparent. The sky was 8/8th's cloud with very little variation. It almost looked like a grey watercolour sky. At the airfield there was a little more variation in the cloud cover. The morning briefing with instructor Gordon Dennis gave us a chance to discuss the Met office charts. The low level weather chart was very complex. There was a warm front predicted to be only a few miles to the west by midday with a cold front swinging in from the north. The whole lot was moving towards us at 10knots. So, after much discussion, the only real answer was to go flying and see what happens.
There was very little wind and even though it was overcast there was some warmth so maybe there would be the odd thermal to play with. Would there be any rain?
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| The new piston and liner in the Zetor engine. |
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| Rick was not this clean by the end o the day. |
Leaving the clubhouse it became apparent that we would be a little low in numbers as 4 of our stalwarts ( Rick, Phil, Jorg and David) separated from the crowd to head for their day's task, to continue with the engine rebuild on the Zetor tractor. The tractor had a major engine failure when one of the valve guide somehow melted and welded a piston to the cylinder head. The piston and cylinder liner have been replaced, the cylinder head has been refurbished with new valves and guides. So all that is left is to reassemble everything. Today's task. By the end of the day the engine was back together. New will be to refit the fuel system and start the engine - watch this space for developments.
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| HXP's new wingtip paint |
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| And some on the wing roots. |
Good news today is the K13 G-CHXP is back on line after is annual ARC renewal. It is now sporting some additional red paint on the wing tips and roots; very sporting looking. We welcomed visitors Haylie Oliver and Peter Griles today both of whom flew with Fred Marks in HXP. the smiling faces suggest that a good day was had by all.
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| Haylie with Fred sharing a joke before flying |
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| Peter and Fred waiting for a launch |
What of the other flying? Well today saw Mike Bennett convert to the K6 that he now owns a share of. He is delighted with it's flying / handling qualities. Best flight of the day was by me in the K8. I managed to find an elusive thermal to carry me to the 2500 ft cloudbase from where I could see a line of showers slowly advancing towards the airfield from the west. I landed after 33 minutes because I judged that the rain's arrival at the airfield was imminent and I thought that if I waited any longer I would get wet on the way back to the launchpoint. In the event the shower never got as far as the airfield but seemed to stop one field away. Oh well, it seemed like a good idea at the time.
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| Mike with his K6,( notice the showers in the background) |
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| A view of Brentor Church from 2000 feet |
A good club day.
Steve
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