Today was a day of two halves, really. And the divide was the number of seats: if you were in a single seater you stood a much better chance of getting away than those in the two-seater, and the cause was the crosswind. Coming up from the south, and despite the best efforts of the winch, it deprived the K-13 of 200-300 much needed feet in launch height which, combined with heavy sink upwind, relegated nearly all training flights to circuits only. In the various single seaters things went much better, with Scratch Hitchens achieving 5,000ft agl over almost 1½ hours in the K-8, Steve Fletcher taking some superb photos during his 1hr+ flight in the Open Cirrus, Colin Boyd a gallant 41 mins in the K-8 and, launching at 1537, Malcolm Wilton-Jones one minute short of 1½ hours in a gravity defying performance in the SF-27 – of which more later.
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Harrowbeer airfield at Yelverton
photographed by Steve Fletcher from 3,500ft. |
Trainee Simon Vallance’s first flight did run into some lift, just over the winch, giving him valuable time to practice his circuit joining procedures. His second and third launches were, however, no more than extended circuits. John Allan then took the front cockpit for a couple of crosswind enhanced circuits before a slow launch caused him to abort, making a land ahead that proved the value of taking the hurdle fence down in the morning. Returning after a seven-month layoff, Peter Mountford then reacquainted himself with life in the air in two launches that culminated in a hangar landing.
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Steve Fletcher’s view of Burrator Reservoir and,
in the middle distance, Wotter waste China Clay Works. |
In the single-seat department Marti Broadway managed 14 mins while Gavin Short and Ed Borlase also took some short flights. But it was Malcolm Wilton-Jones’s excursion that proved the most curious. As the afternoon progressed the keen southerly brought with it a leaden skein of grey cirro-cumulus which, although not evident on the Met Office synoptic charts, gave the appearance of being a warm front that surely meant deprivation of convection for all. Except for Malcolm W-J, that is. He put it like this: “I think the general southerly flow uphill from the valley at Tavistock may have given some reduced sink, the air was still unstable and there were possibly some warm sheltered valleys releasing their warmer air. Added to this there was a front approaching from the west and I have often found good lift on the leading edge of an approaching front. I was having to turn very tightly at 45-50 knots to stay near the cores which were gusting up to 9 knots. The thermals were definitely getting a good boost from the local tor. There were little wisps of cloud marking where to look for the lift which were drifting with the wind, unlike rotor which remains stationary.”
But thanks of the day must surely go to the team who, quite unexpectedly, discovered that the new cables on the winch concealed a nest of vipers which took a great deal of time, good communication, patience and teamwork to sort out. That team comprised Andy Davey, Phil Hardwick (neither of whom subsequently flew), Martin Broadway and Colin Boyd - well done all, without you we wouldn’t have flown at all!
Martin Cropper
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