We were still in the same air as Wednesday, and so we got the same sort of conditions. (Although we weren’t flying Thursday and Friday, they seemed to be a repeat of Wednesday too). Of course, it wasn’t exactly the same; today we had a good flight to start the day, then dead for a few hours, but this time the early afternoon flights were reporting good soaring under the spreadout, before it died again. We thought we’d finished at about 5pm, but then a visitor asked for an extra flight, and Jim decided to use the left-over cable rather than just wind it in. Just then a bit of blue sky obligingly let the sun shine on the airfield and they got away for a half-hour, until guilt at keeping the ground-crew waiting made them land.
Cycling Wed 29th June
The day started really well, with cumulus popping up from about 9.00. Trouble was, that was a bit too early, so by the time we were ready they were already overdeveloped. Bill got away in the K8 for an hour, but the clouds spread out and killed off the low-level thermals. After a couple of hours the spreadout dissolved a bit and let the sun through for long enough for Peter and Keith to get an hour apiece, but others weren’t quick enough and the new clouds filled in again. Finally, at about three o’clock the sky opened up again, the cycle re-started and there was tremendous lift to 5500ft and people disappeared off for a couple of hours – south to Andover, west to Swindon, and north beyond the M4.
Sunday 19th
Long(ish) pause was not just down to the weather as we did get one noteworthy day on the 19th. All up and down until Carol and Phil flew the Janus to set “the bar” at 20 minutes. An hour later Pete and Rob notched “the bar” up another 4 minutes. Back to circuits until I took the Vega (can’t bear to see a glider on the ground and a cable and nobody using it) and went away for over an hour (only brought it back as I was getting twinges from my wallet). It was difficult to make any headway into wind. The Janus launched shortley after me and seemed to using me as a thermal spotter until it broke free and pushed further into wind than me. They made a bid to get to Lynham but the clouds ran out so returned after an hur and a half. Towards the end of the day Keith collared me to take the back seat as he thought he might get a longer flight that way (there had only been one other soaring flight after the Janus had launched and quite a few circuits). Turns out he was right and we had a soaring flight as did Trevor in the Vega. Drove home along the A4 looking at a sky better than anything we’d seen all day.
A long(ish) pause?
Hmm, the last post was over ten days ago. Has nothing happened? Well, no actually, not here anyway. We’ve had a run of windy and wet days, hardly flyable let alone soarable. The only days with a glimmer of hope were on days we weren’t open for flying. C’est la vie. Perhaps Pete can tell us how he got on at Gransden Lodge, where he was able to use a couple of days we weren’t flying.
It hasn’t been a lot better in Sweden, where Liz and Ayala have been competing in the women’s World Championships, along with three other British lasses. They only had five contest days out of a possible ten, due to the weather – it seems all our bad weather finished up there. And of those five days, only one was a half-decent racing day. So congratulations to them – in the Club Class, Ayala finished second, only just behind the winner, and Liz was fifth in a field of 18. But Liz was well and truly robbed on the last day – she completed 123k of a 137k task, but no one else reached 100k (though several made 99k), so it was a no-contest day. Big swizz.