A clear blue sky, temperature due to rise steadily to the higher 20’s and RASP not predicting much if little action until late afternoon there was not a lot of enthusiasm to get going very quickly. A couple of privateers decided to start rigging. Team Zugvogel rigged G-CHSH and Hugh decided to rig G-CFUB.
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| Hugh have you done your ABCD checks? |
Meanwhile the Brentor morrismen practiced their social distance choreography.
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| Brentor Morrismen. |
Eventually we were ready and nominated Martin Cropper to take the first launch. After two 7 minute circuits with reports of some bubbles of lift and some smoother lift to the south I decided to take a launch. From the top of the launch I turned towards Black Down. I found some weak lift but stuck with it climbing very slowly by flying smoothly and making very small adjustments to keep climbing. Eventually the lift improved and I managed to climb to nearly 1800ft. I then flew south east and found some very smooth air to the southeast of the airfield. When this petered out I turned back along the line I had just flown, only to find sink. Not managing to find any more lift I landed after 31 minutes.
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| My view of Mary Tavy and Dartmoor. |
Malcolm took to the K8 and managed 42 minutes in a similar manner to me. Roger Green and Addy Davey only managed extended circuits in the Zugvogel. Steve Lewis did manage 28 minutes in the Zugvogel and on a second attempt Roger stayed aloft for 23 minutes.
All this action spurred Steve Fletcher to rig the Open Cirrus. He had two flights, the longest of which was 35 minutes.
When things were a bit quiet we stopped for a socially distant lunch.
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| Spot the very relaxed pilot. |
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| Even the gliders are socially distancing. |
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| Zugvogel off into the air. |
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| Martin in the K8 |
Even the Buzzards found it too hot to fly.
The last flight of the day was Malcolm in the K8. He managed to climb to 2200ft and then pushed back into wind where he found an area of rough air and a narrow thermal which he used to punch through the inversion. Above the inversion he found an area of very smooth lift which he used to climb to 3000ft. With everthing other than the K8 and winch packed away, Malcolm finally landed after 1hour 3 minutes to claim flight of the day.
It was good to see John O’Connell at the airfield today. He wanted to get back into the swing of airfield operations by helping out. He also spent a period of time in the simulator to get some hands on flying. He eagerly awaits the start of two seater flying. Hopefully this will be not too far away.
Thank you to everybody for a good days flying.
Peter Howarth
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