The forecast was suggesting some possibilities for today. Cloud bases would remain relatively low but local soaring should be ok. The breeze was a little east of north occasionally swinging more to the east. The west end launchpoint was likely to be busy with two K13's and a K8 from the club fleet and the Twin Astir and two Standard Cirrus's.
Today' two One Day Course Candidates Milosz Wysocki, an aspiring Military Pilot and Steve Cook would keep me busy in K13 G-CHXP all day. At the end of the day, both left with smiles have enjoyed some great soaring and having flown the aircraft all around the local area.
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| Milosz |
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| Steve enjoying his briefing from Scratch |
The first flight was at a very creditable 10.15am. I followed at 10.27 and found little bits of lift to extend the circuit a little; more "falling with style" than soaring but fun never the less. Conditions improved from there, climb rates improved and the cloudbase gradually raised from an initial 1700ft above the airfield to a dizzying 2500ft by mid afternoon. The Twin Astir did report climbing to 3000ft at one point.
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| The cloubase was low most of the day |
There were several notable flights. Mike Jardine recorded the day's longest flight of 1 hour 23 minutes on only his second flight in his "new" Std Cirrus. There were plenty of flights over 1 hour. Normally I am excluded from the longest flights list because of the requirements of Air Experience and One Day Course flying but today I think I can claim a moral victory for the best soaring effort of the day, my total time soaring with the 2 One Day Courses totalled 3 hours and 11 minutes.
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| A Std Cirrus joining above |
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Sharing thermals was common today.
Here HXP ( flown by me) joins underneath DMX |
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| Mike Jardine's view from the Standard Cirrus |
Although the cloud base was relatively low that did not stop Gavin Short from a little local cross country flying in his Stand Cirrus. This is how he recalls it
"After launch, having worked zero sink over the church for a while (at 600ft!) it rewarded me with a 5.4kt ave thermal. Although cloud base was 2,200 ft (QFE) I went cross country to Tavistock, Calstock, Cotehele, Harrowbarrow, and Kit Hill. The final glide back to Brentor was interesting as three of my chosen clouds did not work! But I got back. Gavin"
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| Gavin's view down the Tamar estuary |
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Safely back after a nail biting final glide.
(Interesting that his photo cuts off his very stylish winglets) |
Sometimes we forget that the gliders are spotted by people away from the airfield. These photos were supplied by Martin Cropper while over at Roos Tor
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Twin Astir G-DDSL circling over a party of hikers at Roos Tor.
And to prove it... |
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| Here's a zoomed in close-up! |
A very satisfying day
Steve
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