With east in the forecast there was an excitement about the club early on. The rotor clouds over the airfield looked low but very active, The first flight by Mike and Rick to test conditions confirmed that the cloud base was only 1000ft and that the conditions were very turbulent. The decision was made to wait to see if the conditions would stabilise and calm down a little.
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| The view from the ground did not portray the drama aloft |
Meanwhile work was underway in the hangar with preparing G-CFSD one of the new K13's to join the fleet. The instrument panels were replaced as were the wiring and seat belts. In the clubhouse work was underway to print new limitation placards and weight and balance charts for the new aircraft.
A couple of hours after the first flight another test flight in the K13 revealed that the cloudbase had risen sufficiently to allow a full height 1500ft launch, the wave was working and that turbulance was manageable. Game on.
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| The Discus passed underneath the Twin Astir |
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| The view south from NE of the airfield revealed the inversion |
The next up was the Malcolm and Phil in the Twin Astir who disappeared for 1 hour 28 minutes closely followed by Richard Roberts in his Discus who managed a day winning 2 hours 11 minutes topping out a 5000ft. There were 15 flights in total 12 of which soared in the wave.
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| HXP climbing at 6 knots |
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| A great view looking north along the wave bar |
The wave formation was interesting. There was just one single wave bar with heavy turbulence down wind. This may very well be the condition referred to as an "Hydraulic Jump" caused by the higher than usual windspeeds aloft. Classic wave systems usually have several wave bars stretching downwind sometimes for great distances.
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HXP making the last landing at sunset.
The moon was already well above the horizon |
A great way to celebrate the last flying Saturday of 2021
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