It ain't half hot down South ! Sunday, Monday & Tuesday just got steadily hotter reaching 30 degrees and producing rather untypical conditions. Whilst there were plenty of thermals they were rough and some very strong. We had several reports of over 7kts and a couple over 9kts! The problem was the visibility was dreadful. It is so dry down here and harvesting is in full swing so everything is dusty and, with an inversion around 4-4500', the visibility was dreadful. Added to that it was almost totally blue which rather curtailed ambitions. Despite that there were several flights of over 100km and Steve Marriott made a valiant effort at a 300km finally giving up and starting his motor to cruise home the last 40km. Today, Wednesday saw the passing of a weak front and a totally different airmass. From fairly early in the morning the Cu started to pop and Chris Davison set another 300km task. Your blogger was lucky to get away when several pilots had to take relights and, despite conditions over developing and cycling, a much stronger wind than forecast and a severe technology failure, managed to complete the task. Tomorrow is looking good too although overconvection may produce some showers, as happened late this afternoon.
 |
| The Borders trusty crew at work |
 |
| The grid - look at that sky ! |
|
|
 |
| Silverstone - at least part of it |
