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.
For the record: It was a very good day, but not the best. Sat 9/1/10 yielded several ridge flights to Beacon Hill and one to Hannington mast.
ReplyDeleteThere was snow on the ground and a windchill of -5C
Colin
never mind how high - how low did you all go!
ReplyDeleteI went down to 650ft at the Gibbett. It was a bit bumpy so I didn't like to run at more than about 80kt. I was hoping someone else would come down and join me, and maybe we'd have an "I can get lower than you" comp to improve my confidence, but no-one did. I had a little trouble at the west end of the beat though, and I didn't want Peter to have to get me out of a soggy field before he could have his turn, so I wimped out of going really low. Sorry.
DeleteI did try going round the corner beyond the Gibbett, but there was a tad of west in the wind so it wasn't working.
Oh, and though you couldn't really turn in the thermals, they were streeting (weakly) and it was possible to scratch up to over 2000ft.
I agree with Steve, ridge running wasn't really practicable. There was so much turbulence in the wind shear that one was genuinely limited to rough air speed. I guess it would have been made possible by opening the air brakes and putting something soft between your teeth, but I fly for FUN.
ReplyDeleteColin
I can now provide the stats for the day:-
ReplyDelete37 launches
30:45 time flown
22 people flew
6 private gliders rigged
The last time we clocked up over 30 hours in one day was in May (and that was the greatest number of hours on a single day in the last 5 years of 54 hours)