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After the memorable Saturday ridge day a week or so ago Carol and I towed the Janus up to Lleweni Parc with great hopes of having a week flying the ridge. Unfortunately it appears the weather had not seen the forecast because whilst the BBC morning forecast was showing moderate westerlies (ideal for ridge running) we were actually looking out of the cottage window at a definite southerly flow!

As there is only so much staring up at the sky I can do and getting a bit twitchy I took the opportunity to at least have a fly in the Falke and explore the ridge.

Certain parts of the ridge were sort of working and in a few places working well, so well in fact that I managed to convince P1 to turn off the engine and whilst at the controls soared the ridge the 8 miles or so to Ruthin. It wasn’t until I turned back that P1 suddenly remembered that this part of the flight was actually not costing me anything as his costs were worked out on engine time not flying time, he duely restarted the engine!

Here is a short video of the flight:

As you can see from the approach the tarmac strip is a bit narrow and it is vital that you do not depart it as the ground either side is very boggy. We were told that if we did roll onto the grass “sanctions would be made” , what ever that means. The closeness of the bales certainly concentrates the mind but still I was quite happy that I did get a chance to soar the ridge even if it was in a Falke 🙂

Phil

Ok, so it rained a little. Ok, perhaps not ‘little’ as such – in fact I don’t think I’ve ever seen the roads approaching Shalbourne as flooded as they were on the way up this morning. And ok yes, it was sort of snowing as I arrived at the field and you ideally didn’t want to be attempting to get to the top without four-wheel drive. But as I’ve tried to point out, a non-flying day is not the same as a non-learning day, and indeed a few minutes of thinking on the ground can be worth more than many hours of non-targeted bumbling around in the air. And so it was that, after a spot of wheeler-dealing which included rigging Liz’s old tent in the clubhouse, James, John and I got on with some training planning. Frequent cups of tea helped stop us freezing as the temperature dropped to 2C but plans were made in time for us to slither down off the field and close up just as it stopped raining. There’s a moral here somewhere… possibly…

With the promise of a northerly wind and a the end to overcast sky Saturday offered the prospect of some ridge flying. With three club gliders at the launch point by 10 and with 5 private gliders either ready to launch or rigging Chris set off to investigate, only to have the weak link fail on him. Bob had better luck and proved it was indeed soarable. It took a couple more flights before it became clear just how good it was.

On my second flight in the Ka13 I found us climbing back up from 900ft to 1400ft on the ridge where there were others above us including the duo that had managed a 2200ft launch. The best bit was to the east along to Coombe Gibbet though  some ventured further. In my book this was the best ridge flying I’ve seen at Shalbourne but there was more to come my next flight was in the Puchacz which Jon launched to 1850ft after which we found ridge lift at 1500ft. Later, and back in the Ka13, I was treated to a launch to 2400ft (where did that come from) and there was lift even higher.

Almost every flight got some soaring, few were shorter than 20 mins and a number were longer than 2 hours. 37 flights in total and a rough totting up of flight time indicates we we collectively did more than 24 hours in the air. Not bad for the end of October!

Why was it so good you might ask. Good question. There was certainly some thermal activity which helped though you couldn’t turn it it for long without disapearing down wind. Wave was mooted but there was no clear evidence of it and it would be very unusual for wave influence to stay in the same place all day in our part of the country. Most likely it is something to do with wind speed and direction from ground to operating heights. It will be interesting to see what the Met men have to say.

Many big grins seen today, it really want something special. Many thanks to those who made it happen.

Ah yes, E team day; and the weather didn’t quite do as promised but it wasn’t far off. I drove up to the field through dense fog all the way eventually popping out at the top of the hill driving up the field. It was a fairly slow start as we waited for the fog to clear enough for safety but when I did brave a launch it looked like this. This is the view to the south – you can see Conholt Hill then nothing… Splendid. We didn’t manage to beat the Oct launch record – only managed 39 after the slow start and with another pause when the fog finally got organised and lifted and we had to wait while it got high enough to fly a circuit beneath! We also didn’t manage any soaring as such although Bob and Chris both reported an area of 0 sink for a couple of minutes on one flight. The rest of the day the air was as silky smooth as you could want and there was not a breath of wind on the ground, whilst the sun made sundogs and had a pronounced halo most of the day and Bob also managed to spot a circumzenithal arc or whatever it’s called when you get an arc the other way round above the sun. And it was warm enough not to need a jacket all day. Perfect!!!