What a difference a week makes. Last week we were flying in tee shirts and shorts. Today, even though initially we had a clear sky, the temperature was a decidedly chilly 7C. After allowing for the wind chill from the 15 knot northerly this was close to freezing and the assembled members were wrapped up in every layer they had brought with them. Personally I was wishing I had brought my Arctic cold weather suit; a lesson learned.
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| Sunny over the runway. Showers to the west. Wind across the runway |
The northerly wind was strong and gusty straight across the runway, definitely out of limits for flying visitors which were reluctantly canceled for the day. The club was going to fly though so both K13's were readied and taken to the east end launchpoint. Instructors Rick and Mike proceeded to fly with all the memmbers who wished to fly including new member John O'Connell who is keen to experience glider flying in all it's facets..
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| HXP waiting in the sun. Shower clouds showing to the right (south) |
Very quickly the were showers all over the local area but luckily these seemed to go around the airfield. Rick seemed to be well tuned in to the conditions. Twice he managed to find a thermal to whisk him rapidly to the 2000 ft cloudbase before being blown too far downwind. The first of these was a 19 minute effort with John Smith followed by 17 minutes with David Archer. There was also some lift to be had from the north ridge but only relatively low down. The gusty conditions sensibly prevented too much exporation of this. MOst landings were on the stub runway.
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| John O'Connell with Mike in DMX |
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| Take up the Slack |
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| Lift off |
Around 3pm we had had enough of the cold and, as all those who wanted to fly had done so, decided to return the gliders to the hangar.
We made the best of a difficult day.
Steve
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