Andy is worthy of an award with his upbeat forecast on what looks like a miserable day. Wednesday Waders again, rather than Wednesday Wavers
Wednesday Weather.
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| The synoptic chart for 1300 local. Messy, isn't it? |
There is a largish area of low pressure to the west of the UK, which is giving us these very changeable conditions. For Wednesday, there are a couple of fronts crossing the area overnight, and there will be an occluded front crossing the field just after midday. Prior to the front, the field will be in low cloud and rain with a SSW wind at about 10 kts. The front should be over the field at 1430, and once the front clears, the wind will go more westerly and the cloud base should lift to 3,000ft. It could then become flyable.
Skysight summarises the day with its new windgram.
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| Lots of talking is required to make this into a flyable forecast |
Serendipitously, we had no visitors booked today for trial flights. So as the Duty Basic Instructor, I didn't have to cancel our visitors. The challenge was for the Duty Instructor, Mike Jardine, to keep our trainees, and indeed us, occupied.
On the last flying day, the Sunday Soarers indulged in a bit of wild swimming in a monumental deluge as they put the gliders away. Understandably, the five soaked and bedraggled aviators were not up for changing the main wheel on K-13, FSD, which had developed a slow puncture. Our Chairman, Steve Lewis, led the DGS Pitstop Team to change it for the ready spare and then fix the puncture. To have good access, this meant that the hangar doors needed to be opened, the Astir CS77 needed to be moved out into the open and for it to get wet. The gliders were moved around, and the orange belly dolly was put into action. Inevitably the job threw up more snags and intrigues, but the team muddled through.
Scratch was busy with the industrial sewing machine, making more glider pockets for the Puchacz and Astir CS77. In between pockets, he progressed the update of our operating procedures.
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| You have got to be quick to catch Scratch at his workstation in the hangar |
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| Scratch admires one of his glider pockets in the daylight |
Neal decided that getting new LED strip lights from Screwfix in Launceston was easier than battling back into the Tavistock roadworks. After revealing some interesting wiring in the ceiling of the kitchen, both old light fittings were replaced by two energy-efficient strip lights that actually shed light on the proceedings. The parachute room and Tech Office will be done on another rainy day i.e. pretty soon.
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| Neal removing the old light fittings in the kitchen |
John Allan made progress fitting a ground-based radio to the Volvo, so we don't have to rely on a handheld radio. It should also improve the quality of communications on the field. The 3D-printed sun shade for the front Flarm LED display in the Puchacz was offered up. However, more modifications are required!
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| A trial 3D-printed sun shade... |
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| ...for this Flarm display |
Inevitably, there was more discussion about medicals and operating procedures after 30 September. After lunch, I ordered some new inner tubes for the main wheels of our training gliders. This is a family-friendly blog, so I shan't shock our readers with the prices.
Later in the afternoon, the sun came out for a brief period - Andy's clearance, before it started raining again. A lot of rain had fallen overnight and during the day, confirming that it was indeed a day for the Wednesday Waders rather than the Wednesday Wavers.
Gavin Short
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