Category: Flying Reports

 

A gloriously sunny day, naff all wind, no lift but just a great day to get your bum off the ground – even if it is only a short flight.  After the unusually low turnout for the previous Wednesday a good turnout with 19 members clocking up 32 launches on a short day (not long now before the days start to lengthen).  Bob B and myself were kept busy in the back seat all day.  Paul P disputed the time on the log for one of his flights as being 10 minutes (it was 8.5 according to his watch) as he did not want to appear on the blog as longest flight.  In which case Alan B, Bill C and Colin B share the honour with 9 minutes (all in the K8 proving the benefit of the extra launch height available in the K8).

As the day progressed the ground softened a little and became slippy (as Steve B demonstrated) but in the shadow of the ridge (long shadows at this time of year) the ground remained frosted.

The mist in the Pewsey Vale can also be seen in the above photo but it looked more stunning on the last flight of the day when Jonty and I were treated to the view of the bright sinking sun.  My photo doesn’t do it justice but here it is anyway.

And just to show what we missed last Wednesday – Bob B’s photo of a wave bar over Vernham Dean (well, in that direction).

 

8/8 cloud cover but at least cloud base was at the top of the launch (about 1,700′) rather than below the hill as on Saturday.  Not a lot of wind but there was a bit of a “tickle” to be had on the ridge resulting in 10 of the 25 launches creeping into double digits.  After Selvam clocked up 14 minutes he made sure the log keeper didn’t miss any landings thereby protecting his longest flight of the day.

A big thank you to Nigel and Carol for pitching in with back seat duties.  Without their help we would have run out of daylight before everybody got to fly.  Not forgetting the winch drivers and Tony P for the cake.

The field was set-up under a clear blue sky.  We gathered at the launch point under solid, low, cloud cover so we entertained ourselves rigging JPC

Job done, back to the launch point until it was decided to check out just how low the cloud was..  I did have to abandon the launch at cloud base but that was 1,500′.  Just went to show just how difficult it is to estimate cloud base.

With the modest turnout of members only 15 launches.  On the final launch of the day Paul Bryant scrapped an extra minute to take longest flight honours with 11 minutes.  Short flights maybe but a great views of the autumn colours.