The Bank holiday weekend got off to a good start with a busy Saturday, 26 launches and around 40 hours flown ! There was some enthusiastic cross country declarations made, which is great to see. Several pilots declared Selkirk West (thank you BGA, Bowhill House to us) Out & Returns for Silver Distance / 100km Diploma / 100k Diploma speed badges. Sadly, as they got further inland the conditions deteriorated and they all turned back in the Newton St.Boswell or Jedburgh areas. Still, good practice and sensible tactics in returning to the better soaring conditions nearer the site. The consensus opinion was that there was some wave which was producing powerful thermals, some even reported at over 9kts on an averager ! What did happen, later in the day, was something your blogger hasn't ever experienced before. We had wave induced thermals over the high ground between Cheviot and the A697, going to around 6000', but then, just a mile or 2 downwind, 2 areas of sea breeze fronts, one down near Wooler and the other around the North of the site - amazing. Stuart Black looked at the RASP and it clearly showed the dead air to the west were everyone turned back and also the intruding sea air. Mark Williams is clearly getting the taste for cross country flying in the K6e as he made use of the wave induced thermals to go to Rothbury and back.
Sunday started off rather slowly but later in the day conditions improved with Derek Ward taking the K21 up to 7000'
Monday started rather grey with the Tors working but quite soon it got thermic although it didn't appear to be favourable for any cross country flights. However, w probably didn't fly in the best part of the day - late afternoon, after everyone had flown, the cloudbase seemed to rise and some streeting appeared. What your blogger doesn't know, because I went home before he landed, is what Steve Rae got up to. He will go on the achievements board with his 6 hour 40 minute flight !
Tug pilot's view of the last flight of the day
