Sunday 2nd March

Suitably inspired by yesterday's foray to the ridge and the solid WNW winds this morning, John and Mike Gatfield headed off to the ridge in a K-21. Initial feedback was that ridge was working well and so we started to prepare other pilots to go and join them on the ridge. Then received the radio call that the K-21 was at 750' and that they were "holding their own". Clearly a euphemism for "h'mm not sure we should have done this....". Anyway they valiently continued to work up & down the ridge in the hope of connecting with a thermal to lift them back to Booker. Unfortunately the thermal didn't arrive and they elected to land at Moorcourt Farm who weren't parachuting today. They did hope to aerotow out but couldn't due to the site's 28 day rule. So, a road retrieve crew was despatched and they were back an hour later.

Local flying wise, cloudbase was around 2500' intially but reached 4000' by the end of the day. The wind started off WNW and ended pretty much Westerly (and slackened slightly too). Thermals were tight and fairly strong (4-5kts) in parts. Aerotows were quite lively on some flights and definitely more settled later. Another good day.