Another blue day but for those lucky enough to find that first thermal, and skillfull enough to work it, there were good flights to be had. 10 of the 27 launches had ove 30 minutes with Bill C exercising his K6 for over 2 hours. Thermals came to an abrupt halt at 3,000′ coming up to the inversion but couple of folks headed for the haze caps to the south of the field to get up to 4,000′
Sat 19 March
What? No blog entry yet? It was the first proper soaring day of the year. There were private gliders rigged, and went soaring. Not every flight connected, but there was over 16hrs soaring by those who did, and a total of 44 launches and a visitor landing. We even had a cross-country – er, well, if you count 8km. Why has no-one has taken the P155 yet, not even for coming back to the airfield without the glider? Anyone get any photos?
W/E 12th & 13th March
Saturday: Hazy sun but those that turned out enjoyed extended flights, with dutyman Tim and John Turk claiming the longest at 22mins.
Sunday: As I left Basingstoke it was darker than black, the rain slowed M3 traffic to 50mph and it was quite simply bleak. But with a forecast clearance arriving from the west by the time we got to the airfield it had upgraded to the uninspiring category.
We set up, lined the toys up and Claire and I launched into 1100ft cloud, flew a circuit and landed. After that Claire quite spectacularly failed to get the top on the next three attempts, for some reason either i pulled the bung or the winch driver decided to cut the power. A few others flew some circuits but then the sky broke apart and fluffy cumulus appeared. With no-one on the 2 seat list I took the Vega but it was too soon, on my second go it stuck in rather pleasant medium thermals to 2500′ above airfield height. Chris in bi and the K8 joined me, as did the pooch and soon the airfield was empty. Later on Chris lent me the LS7 and I joined the K8 in a thermal to get some FLARM fixes to test the unit newly installed in the K8.
Saturday 6th March
Despite a promising forecast Saturday dawned drab and overcast. But thanks to Chris and others setting up early we were ready to launch as soon as cloud base started to rise by mid morning with some good launches and weak winter thermals to be had.
A good day for training with Steve B getting his annual checks out of the way and new member Jim M making the most of the quiet day to get in 5 training flights with rapid progress.
Essential maintenance was also completed on the skybrid winch at the end of the day and an expedition to recover some rare spares for a vintage Oly restoration project was seen to return all smiles. So despite the slow start a very successful day all round.