Category: Flying Reports

OK so the rain hung around longer than forecast but the sun did come out, as forecast, in the afternoon.

Unfortunately, it seems many of the “Wednesday boys” saw the rain and stayed at home so we didn’t quite have enough folks to fly.  However, the 8 or so there were busy setting to and doing various jobs that help keep us flying.

Since no one seems to be moved to update the blog for weekend flying I will just note here that last weekend there was flying on both days 30 launches on Saturday and 28 on Sunday.  The expectation was that Sunday would be the better day (bit more north in the wind and a bit stronger) but it turned out 9:30 frown on Saturday and 5:47 on Sunday.  On Saturday longest flight honours went to Ken P with 1:35 in the Duo closely followed Ken R with 1:35.  Ken R was back on Sunday to take longest flight with 36 minutes, this time in the K8.

 

What a cracking day for the time of year – Liz (as Duty Instructor) had summoned up good weather.  On the 3rd launch we moved into double digit flight time and from then on it was all double digit flights (with a minor exception) until mid-afternoon.  This included 8 flights around the half hour and 3 approaching the hour.  Trevor G taking top dog honours with 59 minutes and Bob B snapping at his heels with 57 minutes.  Mind, it was Bob’s first flight in type.  Turn’s out in the huge number of types he’s clocked up Bob had never flown an LS7.

A great day for launches with reported launch heights of 2,150′ in the K8 and 1900′ in a K13.  Climbs to 3,000′ also reported.  Visibility was excellent – Tony P and I could see the Solent (“shining like a national guitar” to quote Paul Simons) form about 2,500′.  The photo doesn’t do it justice but the bright line sitting on the horizon (below) is said stretch of water.

The good weather brought out lots of members and visitors and all 3 2-seaters were kept busy with training flights thanks to the “spare” instructors (Bob B, Richard D and yours truly) pitching in the help Liz get through a long list.  Maybe not as many launches as the previous day (37 compared to 43) but the total number of hours was over twice that of Saturday (11:24 compared to 4:38)

 

Well the overnight rain cleared away nicely leaving us with a wonderful soaring day at Rivar.

Initially cloudbase was quite low but as the sun took effect it rose to well over 3800ft which enabled many members to have extended soaring.

I don’t have the log sheets to hand but I know that as the day progressed there were flights in excess of an hour. Certainly Jim Gavin and Nigel were kept busy!

Here are a few shots from the back seat of the Janus:

All in all not bad for October, just goes to show that soaring opportunities can be had when you least expect them 🙂