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Saturday 30th March

Saturday turned out to be a bit of a mixed bag.

Most of the 28 flights were less than 10 mins but if you were fortunate to launch at the right time extended flights were possible.
Carol and I found some lift to the south west of the airfield and squeezed out a reasonable 1 hr 6 mins but Jim flying the Nimbus made use of the convergence to reach 3800 ft and stayed airborne for a creditable 1 hr 36 mins.
Later on Carol and Chris in the Janus made use of the same convergence line as Jim and flew from Vernham Dean to just north of Whitchurch climbing to 3800 ft without turning.
Lets hope this is the start of the soaring season!
Phil
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Wednesday 27th

3 weeks of no flying activity must be some kind of a record but today the lean period came to an end.  Too much east in the wind to get the ridge working, bitterly cold but cloud base around 2,000′ and we could fly.  Then there was the bonus of some soaring.  Bob B was the first to discover there was something there when he returned in the Vega with tales of a 50′ gain in height.  Inspired by this I jumped into the K8 launched to 1,750 and gracefully descended to 1,250′ at which point there was a beep.  Not easy but I managed to match Bob’s gain of height, some more determined flying doubled that and eventually back up to launch height and on to 1,900′.  24 launches in total, 2 over half an hour and another 9 made double digits.

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Sir Ranulph Fiennes turns back from expedition to summit Rivar Hill

24 march 2013. Today Sir Ranulph Fiennes abandoned his attempt to be the first man to summit rivar hill, unsupported and without recourse to either supplementary oxygen or a jumper.

Local pilots who were there fettling a Libelle reported conditions as being somewhat wintery with the mercury at -2c and the wind sock standing horizontal, well it would have if we’d been daft enough to raise it.