"A day of two halves"
With an optimistic RASP forecast of good thermals no surprise that a number of private gliders were being rigged and prepared for flight early in the day. With the K21s out on the launch point soon after 09:00, club flying was under way for the day before 10:00, allowing several reduced price winch launches for the lucky few.
The sky looked generally positive and as the morning progressed some private gliders were soon being brought 'on line' with an element of confidence around 'getting away' from a winch launch. However as is often the case the sky was 'deceiving' and very much a case of 'pot luck' around whether one could find the elusive and not very good thermals. Unsurprisingly some of the private gliders were moved from winch launch to aerotow line with the objective of being taken to a suitable cloud whilst other private gliders 'persisted' with trying to get away from a winch launch.
With an optimistic RASP forecast of good thermals no surprise that a number of private gliders were being rigged and prepared for flight early in the day. With the K21s out on the launch point soon after 09:00, club flying was under way for the day before 10:00, allowing several reduced price winch launches for the lucky few.
The sky looked generally positive and as the morning progressed some private gliders were soon being brought 'on line' with an element of confidence around 'getting away' from a winch launch. However as is often the case the sky was 'deceiving' and very much a case of 'pot luck' around whether one could find the elusive and not very good thermals. Unsurprisingly some of the private gliders were moved from winch launch to aerotow line with the objective of being taken to a suitable cloud whilst other private gliders 'persisted' with trying to get away from a winch launch.
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| Top cover spoiling the action |
And
then around lunchtime the sky started to change for the better and soon
the sky around North Hill was full of gliders 'having fun' with the
evident thermals, albeit that cloudbase was rarely much above circa
2500' QFE.
By the end of the day, with the toys being packed away, just after 6pm, 78 flights in total had been completed (67 winch and 11 aerotows) for a total of just over 28 hours total flight time.
Various pre-solo
members made progress with their training, Junior FZF was in good use
during the afternoon, K6 HEB had a good airing and Paul S continued to
practice for his Asst Cat course with Simon L. - Mike Sl
