Low pressure is in charge leading to unsettled weather, showers and sunny periods. Today's breeze was mostly southerly. It seems to be the club's holiday season with several of the Saturday regulars away on holiday leaving our numbers somewhat depleted. On the positive side we are launching from the west with the winch a long way into the top field so good launch heights are on the cards. In fact the K13 was averaging 1350 feet with a reported best of 1500 feet, and the K8 was doing even better with a reported best of 1750 feet.
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| The launch hut under an interesting sky |
DMX is currently undergoing it's CofA so we fielding just K13 HXP and K8 GDK. Today's one Day Course was Hugo White. As we had a surfeit of instructors today we were able to provide Hugo with 3 different instructors to fly with today. The first 2 flights were with new BI ( but very experienced pilot ) Richard Roberts followed by 2 flights with me and the course was completed with 2 flights with Rick. By the end of the day Hugo was able to fly the aircraft around using all the controls and could even trim the aircraft effectively. I hope he decides to continue flying gliders.
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| Hugo with Richard. Both look happy with their efforts. |
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| Mike and Rick discussing the plan |
What about the conditions. Was it soarable. Yes, indeed. The clouds were formed up into streets and these were giving some 6 knot climbs and strong runs with wings levels. The K8 pilots were operating to club rules and limited their flights to an an hour each.
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| The view towards Plymouth |
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| Hugo turning right |
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| A nice solid 6 knots |
For most of the day we could see showers to the west over Cornwall which were sliding past the airfield just to the north. Curious about this I consulted a newly installed weather app on my phone which confidently predicted rain in 113 minute. The was at 1pm. At 2.50 it rained. The app now predicted that the rain would cease in 49 minutes. The rain actually stopped a little earlier at 3.30pm. Interesting.
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| Sheltering from the rain. Rick, Allan and Andy (who seems to be in disguise) |
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Martin and Malcom also sheltering from the rain
( or did they come down to complain about the noise.) |
Unfortunately, the shower had killed off the thermals and there was very little of anything to disturb the now smooth air. This led to a suitably early finish which allowed us to put every thing away and the fence back before the committee members amongst us convened for our monthly meeting.
A pleasant day with a few friends and a nice visiting family.
Steve
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