A brisk north-north-east wind, stronger at height, was forecast but the cloudbase was very low initially but some members were rigging their own gliders in the hope of wave.
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| Club gliders being DI’d in the morning. Image from John Allen |
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| Another two club gliders undergoing Daily inspections. Image from John Allen |
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Andy Davey is first off in search of wave,
he was back 5 minutes later! Image by Neal Oxley |
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A short time later Make Jardine shows Geoff Cooper
how to do a weather check. Image by Neal Oxley |
We had two voucher visitors today, Brian North and Nigel Matthews, who were flown with Phil Hardwick and Steve Fletcher in the Puchacz.
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| Brian North with Steve Image Peter Howarth |
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| Nigel Matthews with Steve and Phil Image Peter Howarth |
A handful of students were flown mostly by Mike Jardine with a little help from Peter Howarth in the two K-13s.
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Peter Howarth is about to give John Osment
a Launch Failure. Image by Mike Jardine |
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| Final approach in the Ka-13. Image by Mike Jardine |
I had been on the winch since the start through until after lunch and on arrival at the launch point none of the solo pilots wanted to fly so I decided to try a couple of launches in the Astir CS77. On the first one I flew NE past Mary Tavy and Blackdown but found nothing until on the base leg I found a band of lift. On the second launch to 1350’ I flew SE and stayed above 1300’ for a few minutes. I then noticed a K-13 circling near the spot I had found lift earlier so decided to join it. Arrived just below it at about 800’ and the vario started to sing. We were both trying to centre on a narrow core and keep opposite each other and climbing slowly and trading places but drifting downwind. As I climbed past the Ka-13 he left to head back but I also gave up when I could not get above 1100’. On the way back I found another core but it also petered out at 1100’ and I found no more and landed after 23 minutes. The Ka-13 had made 15 minutes, and these remained the longest flights of the day.
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Julia climbing in a weak thermal.
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| Plymouth in the distance. Image by Mike Jardine |
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| Airfield from the east. Image by Mike Jardine |
By this time all the other solo pilots were still trying to find the elusive wave but the best efforts were around 11 minutes.
38 launches.
Malcolm Wilton-Jones
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