Category: Uncategorised

Well its Autumn. But that ment we all enjoyed the Autumn thermals. The northly wind teased on the ridge but it was the thermals that kept most aloft with flights of 20mins to 3hours.

As I had not completed a 300k flight yet, Chris and I decided to set RIV,SHM,PAR,RIV as the task. The run to Shepton Mallet was not too bad but the lift was not quite consistent enough to really get a move on.

After turning SHM the run back to Frome was interesting! The lift we had left to run to the TP had done a runner and made us both really work at scraps of lift before being rewarded with decent climbs. At Warminster we headed south and followed the edge of the danger area round to Salisbury, keeping clear of Boscombe Down. It was here that we noticed that what little Cu there was had melted away leaving only a few wispy bits to aim for.

As we got further round the danger area the lift was more spreadout and harder to find. We decided to abandon the task near Chilbolton and make the run back to Rivar.

In hindsight we should have just hung around where we were and wait for the conditions to improve a bit because after we had landed it looked like things had improved and maybe we could have carried on a bit further.

All in all a very enjoyable flight just a shame we encountered the different airmass which caused us to wimp out. Still at least we managed to fly all the way round the danger area and flew just over 160K.

Phil

The words “interesting” and “character forming” were ones heard around the airfield today. 90 degree crosswind and lots of it. Colin did a weather check launch and declared it a “BI and above” day and suggested that I check conditions before riding shotgun with any members wanting to fly. Chris K jumped in offering his services as ballast and video crew. Off the launch into a thermal 2 up on one side and 4 up on the other. So, we climbed (up to 2,400′) and drifted (alongside the Gibbet). Stately progress heading back to the field but looked fine until we hit the 6 down and then the 8 down (the airbrakes were closed!). Got back to the point we started but 300′ lower. Ran down the side of the field (pretty close in) and turned in for finals at 800′ to land across the field. Still had plenty of the width of the field left by the time we rolled to a halt. Chris is planning to edit the flight for viewing and promised to replace the soundtrack (lots of laughter interspersed with the occasional expletive) with music.
Most of the members in attendance got a taste of landing across the field as well as a couple of visitors from Aston Down