Regionals - Sixth Day - They're all back

We stuck with the 'A' Task and launched sometime after 11:00. Everybody set off under an 'interesting' sky and there were a few landouts later - William Parker in MH landed near Buckingham, Gary Nuttall in 732 decided to visit Bicester, Steve Williams nearly made it around the task and landed at Lewknor. Provisional results are out and can be found on the Regionals page .

Regionals - Sixth Day - It's a rush

We had a briefing at 10:15 and the gliders are waiting on the grid. Metman says there's going to be a usable window and the top cover is likely to burn off. Today we can expect 10kt SW winds as the centre of the low pressure system is approaching. Expectation is cloudbase of around 3000' with thermals decaying to 1-2kts as the showers head in by 3pm.

Task A - Booker Bridge (BOB) - Buckingham (BUC) - Olney (OLN) - Winslow (WSL) - Booker SW (BO1) - Booker Finish 1 (BF1) - 141.5km.

Task B - Booker Bridge (BOB) - Silverstone (SIL) - Booker SW (BO1) - Booker Finish 1 (BF1) - 112.7km.

Outlook is for it to be non-flyable tomorrow. Watch this space.

Need to rush off now as first launch is expected at 11:00....

Regionals - Fifth Day - Scrubbed

looks like some quite menacing showers in the distance and the wind is still strong and gusty. Even the Red Bull aircraft have gone away.

Regionals - Fifth Day - retasked

Booker Bridge-Thame Airfield-Membury-Booker SW - 125.2km. First launch after 13.30. It's now 14.30 and Z3 the sniffer is scuttling around. Airmass has decayed but we're not giving up yet.

Regionals - Fifth Day - Tasks are set

The low pressure system has moved into Scotland and is likely to be heading towards Scandinavia this evening. Meanwhile it's generating winds which will be 5-10kts stronger than yesterday. Likely to be a steady 25-30kts today but no wind gradient or shear expected - so less of a wave influence. Cloudbase is expected to be 4500'-5000' with 4kts climbs until 18:00.

Outlook for Thursday is that there's likely to be a soaring window before the showers arrive later in the day. So the plan is to prepare for an early start tomorrow.

Tasks for today:

Task A - Booker (BOO) - Booker Bridge (BOB) - Hurtsbourne Tarrant (HUR) - Marlborough (MAR) - Booker SW (BO1) - Booker Finish (BF1) - 149.8km.

Task B - Booker (BOO) - Booker Bridge (BOB) - Newbury South (NES) - Welford (WEL) - Booker SW (BO1) - Booker Finish (BF1) - 105.3km.

Some light showers, so we're going to prepare for launching at 13:00 in the hope that our Metman is wrong about the wind strength.

Regionals - Fifth Day - We watch and wait

Briefing is at 11:00. Strong winds expected (5-10kts higher than yesterday). Should make life very interesting! Results for the competition so far can be found on the Regionals 2009 page.

Regionals - Fourth Day - Everyone's back or accounted for

We stuck with the 'A' task and started launching at 13:20. A very windy day which caught a few pilots out. Landouts included Nils in EN at Chiltern Park (soon joined by Steve Williams in JDV) and Jim White in J1M at Kingsclere. Several people made it as far as Basingstoke before heading back to Booker and a few actually completed the task. Results later!