Another high pressure day with the wind set firmly in the north and forecast to remain between 10 and 15 knots. RASP was suggesting some good thermal soaring starting somewhat later. So with this in mind rigging was a fairly leisurely affair end up with a Discus, ASW20, Open Cirrus, 2*Astir, Zugvogel 3B alongside the club SF27 and K8.
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| Clouds starting to appear |
First launch at 11.21am was Rick flying his Astir who promptly fell out of the sky with a 5 minute circuit. A second launch saw Rick hook a thermal and climb away for a 1 hour 34minute flight only returning to let syndicate partner Mike Jardine have a go. Mike needed 2 launches before finally getting away for 1 hour 16.
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| Open Cirrus lifts off with some good clouds in view |
From this you might gather that getting away was not as easy as you might expect. Thermals low down were very tight small bubbles and several of these were needed to climb from the less than 1000ft launches available today ( no headwind just the constant 10knots+ crosswind ) to 1500ft or so where the thermals were much more organised and therefore easier to use. Climbs from there were strong the best giving 4knots+ on the averager. Cloud bases rose quickly through the day to 3500 ft QFE.
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| Rick's view of Roadford Lake |
Lots of good soaring was enjoyed with the longest flight being Steve in the Open Cirrus just 4 minutes short of 3 hours. Richard in the Discus and Phil in his Astir both recorded flights over 2 hours. 4 more pilots recorded flights well over 1 hour and 2 more around 3/4 hour.
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| An unusual view of Brentor Church |
Due to the strong northerly crosswind the stub runway saw plenty of action with pilots choosing this into wind option for their landing.
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