Sunday 2 June 2013

Convoy...


Some unbidden ironing, cooking and general dogs-body duties had produced enough fun tokens for an afternoons flying. And Sunday delivered again with cotton wool clouds to the horizon.

Although it wasn't quite a straightforward as it looked with really strong, tight thermals forming small cigar shaped clouds, which didn't live for a long time: So it was a case of getting to 4000 ft as quickly as possible, and staying there.

My best thermal had a kite join me: I am however beginning to go off them, as they they climb like a rocket, and disappear into the distance higher and faster than me! Nobody likes a show off...

The highlight of today's flight was a glider convoy along a cloud street from the Hambledon valley to Stokenchurch. I've never flown so long in lift without turning! Thanks to CFA leading the way: I was so busy picking 'a cloud' and thermalling, I was missing the opportunities to join them up in a street!

At the end of the street we went our separate ways and I made a bee-line for some good looking clouds in the 5,000ft airspace west of the line from the Fair Mile fork to the Lewkner M40 junction*: Cloudbase stopped play at 4800 QFE Booker and the last 500 ft climb was sssslllllloooooowwwwwww as the thermal petered out long before cloudbase.

That's another great flight in the junior into the evening...

*EDITED: When I say the fair mile - I've always considered that to be the entirety of the road up as it turns into dual carriageway up the hill and towards Nettlebed. My bad for giving the impression I was over Henley at over 4000ft! I wasn't!

1 comment:

Brian said...

Sorry for concern all - my definition of the fair mile is wrong: I also include the entire road as it goes up the hill towards Nettlebed. In truth I was much further north and west than that as I had the instructors K13 south of me climbing to join my height, and we were both safely in the 5000ft space.