Thursday 8th October

Arriving at the club in the sunshine proved it was a good move slipping Wednesday a day.  However, first 3 launches proved it wasn’t as good as it looked with each doing a 5 minute circuit. Then Bob B and Denis G proved otherwise with a 27 minute flight but everyone else continued to do circuits.  The clouds looked good to the west to the north to the east and, you guessed it, to the south but scrappy above.  Around 14:30 Bill C (In a K8 on his free 3rd launch) and Bob B  (in a K13) managed to get away.

20151008_Bob
Bob B’s view from a K13 above cloud base
These did not appear on Bob's FLARM
These did not appear on Bob’s FLARM

Rod H then decided to get some of what was on offer and launched in the Puchacz.  There was a debate as to why he returned 8 minutes later, was it because he felt lonely without Paul P,  wanted to show Paul how it is done or needed some tips?  Whatever the reason the result was longest flight of the day at 1:11.   By the time I got my bum in the K8 it was little more than circuits on offer but scratched in some weak lift which eventually got me to within a nat’s of 3,100′ – drifted to the gibbet by that point.  Nothing else on offer but still enough to give me a 33 minute flight but only 4th in the longest flight stakes.

Not often do we get the chance to thermal to over 3,000′ on a day in October.  However, one problem with changing days from the usual day – no donuts 🙁

Indian Summer Weekend

As nobody who was flying on the weekend of 26/27 September has posted anything about the day I thought something should be said about an exceptional weekend for late September.  I was down in Devon that weekend enjoying the glorious weather so can only recount what I have seen in the logs – hopefully comments will get added by folks who got to enjoy the weekend at Rivar Hill.

25 launches on both days with a total of 16 hours 23 minutes flown on Saturday and 11 hours 43 minutes on Sunday.  On Saturday there were 7 flights of over an hour with Chris B being the air hog with 3:28.  No idea where he got to in that time – maybe he will enlighten us.  Sunday there were just 5 flights of over an hour with, yet again, Chris B taking longest flight time with a more modest 2:10.

Portmoak

Loch Leven

The first 4 days at Portmoak have been quite good.
Portmoak

Thursday  and Friday were good ridge days and during these days clocked up around 5 hours on the ridge.

Running the  ridge
Running the ridge

Portmoak

During Saturday  and Sunday the wind shifted  to the east and became mildly thermic. Flight times were lower but great fun.
Loch Leven

On tow
On tow
Loch Leven
Loch Leven

Chris and I latched onto a good thermal and climbed to Cloud base which was at 2500ft then ran a street all the way to the coast  at Kirkcaldy without turning. The final glide back was devoid of any lift but the Janus got us back with 900ft to spare.

The coast  near Kirkcaldy
The coast near Kirkcaldy

Monday  and Tuesday have been wet but it looks like Wednesday afternoon onwards  will be good again.

Golden October!

With patches of mid morning blue sky peeking through the mist and the forecasters promise of blue thermals to 3000 ft later in the day, a few of us put away the coffee flasks and rigged, but without too much conviction. Although Jim G had cried off instructing on account of an attack of shingles he put in a brave appearance, supervising the airfield and doing anything that didn’t involve sitting down. Having shingles is a real pain in the a**e, but even more so if they happen to be on your a**e. Get well soon Jim!

Any kind of soaring is welcome in early October, so after Paul P had defied gravity for more than half an hour in the Ka8, there was a rush to get airborne. Those who did discovering widespread lift beneath dark patches in the murk. The promised blueness never yielded anything but sink and mid afternoon cloud base was somewhere above 2500 ft, but the upper visibility was too poor to discover exactly where it was. Nonetheless visibility at lower levels remained quite good, so safe aviating was possible. Star of the day was Peter Ellison who held the flying instruction together, delivering a half day course and several trial lessons, before disappearing in the ASW15 only to reappear after 5 pm as the airfield was being shut down.

Motorway junction, Hungerford North
Motorway Junction at Hungerford North

Hungerford from Hungerford North – it’s out there somewhere.
Hungerford from Hungerford North – it’s out there somewhere.