Yesterday's newspaper headline was "This summer is the warmest ever, says Met Office". I'll give our readers a moment to compose themselves after choking on their tea after that porkie pie.
Many of the Wednesday Wavers can remember the summer of 1976. Apart from four pleasant warm spells, this year is nothing like 1976, as soaring pilots across the country will attest.
So to Wednesday's weather from our guru.
Low pressure is dominating our weather at present. A cold front should have passed over the field by mid-morning. So first thing, there will be rain, but once the front clears, there should be a rapid improvement in the conditions.
Wind initially will be southerly, but once the front clears will go round to the west at 10 kts. There should be some reasonable thermal activity from lunchtime on, 3 to 4 kts going to about 3,500ft, with the better conditions to the west of the field.
After putting Mackle the cat (my organic weather sensor) out this morning, he confirmed that it was raining, the temperature was 15C, but that it felt cooler in the southerly breeze. He wasn't impressed by the Met Office's warmest summer ever.
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| Mike Bennett suitably attired whilst making the tea. It was wet and cold outside. |
Skysight had the frontal clearance at 1300. So the first launch for a weather check was at 1243. The two Mikes (Jardine and Bennett) sampled the post-frontal sky, soaring for 12 minutes. The forecast now realised, we had a great afternoon of soaring. The postponement of our visitors to the afternoon, to make best use of the conditions, was carefully managed by Steve Fletcher, the Duty BI.
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| The view to the east while walking the K-8 to the launch point |
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| Puddles on the centre track whilst heading east |
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| But the sky was brightening to the west |
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| The Twin syndicate get their glider ready. Look at the low cloud over Mary Tavy. |
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| Low cloud at the start of flying, before our visitors arrived |
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| Waiting for improving skies |
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| Then the sky in the west looked like this |
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| First launch into variable cloud levels |
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| The ghost in the machine? |
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| Mike Bennett checks out the conditions. Nice thermal Mike. |
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| A gloomy view to the South and Plymouth |
First up was Joey Warren, a 96-year-old who flew some fundraising flights for her church with me a few months back. Today, she enjoyed an extended soaring flight with Steve.
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| "Old Hand" Joey Warren about to go soaring with Steve |
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| The airfield from overhead Mary Tavy |
Then it was the Fletchers' turn to fly. All three of them. A quiver of Fletchers perchance? Steve flew his niece Amelia and his nephew George. Both enjoyed soaring flights with their uncle.
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| Amelia ready to fly with her uncle |
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| The Puchacz over Blackdown |
Then it was the turn of Barry White (no jokes please, he has heard them all) to fly. Barry enjoyed an extended soaring flight with Steve.
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| Barry White, and his support band, after his flight with Steve |
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| A bird's eye view (or the K-8's at least) of the Puchacz |
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| A closer look at the Puchacz |
Our final visitor, Simon Wolstenholme, a former paraglider pilot, had two flights, including a soaring flight that finished with a hangar landing. They probably didn't fly over his house at Lewdown, but they should have been able to see it.
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| John Allan briefs paraglider pilot Simon Wolstenholme on the Puchacz's instruments |
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| Simon, keen to get back in the air with Steve |
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| Back at the hangar, Steve presents Simon with his certificate |
Our solo pilots enjoyed soaring in the K-8, with John Smith clocking up an hour and 10 minutes at the end of the day. I think I achieved the highest climb in the K-8, finding cloudbase at 4,100 feet, above airfield height, to the west of Tavistock, the XK10 variometer singing like a homesick angel. Meanwhile, John Allan ventured along the Tamar Valley.
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| The River Tamar from Calstock, to Cotehele, the Hamoaze and the south coast |
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| View of Bere Ferrers and the River Tamar. |
Our trainees, Ian and Neal all made good progress in their training with multiple or long soaring flights. DB also managed two flights with the Duty Instructor, one was a soaring flight.
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| Later in the day climbing to cloud base to 4,100 feet with Ian King |
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| Peter manages to catch DB unawares and snap a photo |
The Twin Astir added to the party with Malcolm and Robin clocking up 1 hour and 11 minutes.
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| The majesty of Dartmoor |
It was a day that started off soggy and then turned out well. Twenty flights were made on a glorious afternoon. Throughout the blog, there have been multiple references to soaring. Yes, there was a lot of it. In fact, all but four flights were soaring flights. The Wednesday Wavers averaged over 26 minutes per flight today. Not bad for an afternoon's work in August.
Gavin Short
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