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Sat 18 Sep – a good day! (Well, brilliant actually)

The forecast was for good soaring conditions even by summer standards, and here we are well into September. What’s more, it delivered pretty much as promised, even on Liz’s day (it must have missed her swap with Tim). Here’s what Liz said:
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As forecast, conditions were good; I saw climbs up to 6kt sustained average (thanks Chris for lending me B1 to find them in towards the end of the day!). Best weather was to the SE although Phil and Chris aiming at a 300k Shepton Mallet / Parham got stuck with a blue hole between Salisbury and Southampton which caused them to have to abort the task and head for home. Had they got across it, reports were of excellent conditions to the east as well. To the north however as forecast it wasn’t so good – various people tried to go that way and all gave up around Newbury-ish. Around 3pm the nice streets that had been set up all day seemed to dissipate which seemed as if it might be the end of the day, but in fact it continued to work in the blue, and then some splendid streets set up that were still working at 5 when the top cover finally damped it all down.

I finally got to fly the Vega at the end of the day and confirm that it scratches very nicely in the last broken thermal of the day, averaging around 0.2kt from 850′ to just over 1000′ before I decided it was time to go and try those comforting airbrakes. No need to overshoot anything there, is there!

A great time was had I think by all – including Stephen’s 1-day course whose grin was probably a thermal source in itself. I hope we’ll see him again.
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Stephen’s stats analysis tells us that we did more hours today than any day in the preceding 3 years. We also had several hundred km XC (mainly Chris and Phil’s, but also a couple of quick 60k out-and-returns in flights of just an hour or less, and Trevor took the Skylark a-wandering. Well done to all.

No doubt Pete would have added to them in 737, but he was otherwise occupied – completing his Full Category Instructor’s qualification, congratulations.

Steve

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Saturday 18th

As I had not completed a 300k flight yet, Chris and I decided to set RIV,SHM,PAR,RIV as the task. The run to Shepton Mallet was not too bad but the lift was not quite consistent enough to really get a move on.

After turning SHM the run back to Frome was interesting! The lift we had left to run to the TP had done a runner and made us both really work at scraps of lift before being rewarded with decent climbs. At Warminster we headed south and followed the edge of the danger area round to Salisbury, keeping clear of Boscombe Down. It was here that we noticed that what little Cu there was had melted away leaving only a few wispy bits to aim for.

As we got further round the danger area the lift was more spreadout and harder to find. We decided to abandon the task near Chilbolton and make the run back to Rivar.

In hindsight we should have just hung around where we were and wait for the conditions to improve a bit because after we had landed it looked like things had improved and maybe we could have carried on a bit further.
All in all a very enjoyable flight just a shame we encountered the different airmass which caused us to wimp out. Still at least we managed to fly all the way round the danger area and flew just over 160K.

Phil

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Wednesday 15th September

The words “interesting” and “character forming” were ones heard around the airfield today. 90 degree crosswind and lots of it. Colin did a weather check launch and declared it a “BI and above” day and suggested that I check conditions before riding shotgun with any members wanting to fly. Chris K jumped in offering his services as ballast and video crew. Off the launch into a thermal 2 up on one side and 4 up on the other. So, we climbed (up to 2,400′) and drifted (alongside the Gibbet). Stately progress heading back to the field but looked fine until we hit the 6 down and then the 8 down (the airbrakes were closed!). Got back to the point we started but 300′ lower. Ran down the side of the field (pretty close in) and turned in for finals at 800′ to land across the field. Still had plenty of the width of the field left by the time we rolled to a halt. Chris is planning to edit the flight for viewing and promised to replace the soundtrack (lots of laughter interspersed with the occasional expletive) with music.
Most of the members in attendance got a taste of landing across the field as well as a couple of visitors from Aston Down

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Vega at Parham

Nigel took this photo of the Vega after his Silver distance flight to Parham.
Nice photo and great flight well done! Who’s next for a first 50K?