Leaving Plymouth on a reasonably bright morning and with the forecast for
north westerlies and possible wave it was hopeful for a good days flying.
Unfortunately arriving at the airfield I was greeted by low cloud. Although
there were signs that the cloud was clearing some stubborn low cloud remained
over the airfield. But it continued to slowly clear and ever optimistic we
readied the airfield to fly. One club K13 was taken out and three private
gliders rigged, SF27 (Barry Green), Zugvogel 3b (Roger Green & Andy Davey)
and a dart (Leith Whittington).
I finally decided to take a weather check flight at 12:41 with Martin
Cropper. We launched into clear air to the east over Mary Tavy and found some
definite wave and were climbing at 1-2 knots. Unfortunately the cloud was seen to
be encroaching back towards the airfield. So it was open airbrakes and descend to
circuit height and land before the cloud encroached too far. We stood down for an
hour, by which time the cloud had cleared well to the west.
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| Leith ready for his launch |
Barry Green (SF27), Roger Green (Zugvogel 3b) and Leith Whittington (Dart 17R) all
took a launch. Barry and Roger returned after extended flights of 16 and 19
minutes respectively. Leith could be seen north of the airfield initially
maintaining height, but then found some more defined lift and could be seen
steadily climbing.
Steve Fletcher and I took a launch in the K13 to hopefully follow Leith’s
way. Again off the top of the launch we noticed that the cloud was approaching
from the west. We lost sight of Leith so again we took the safe option to return
and land before the cloud came too far east. Leith returned after a 51 minute
flight. He decided to quickly descend seeing the cloud approaching from the east
as we had in the K13.
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| Wave clearly visible over the airfield |
Another new flight at the club is the steps between the hangar and the clubhouse. A nice addition by Colin Boyd.
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| Colin Boyd Flight |
Only five flights, but we made the best of the short breaks in the cloud.
Thanks go to Mike Bennett for winching and his efforts in the continuing
clearance on the site. Also thankyou to Heather for retrieving and others who
helped without flying.
Peter Howarth
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