At last the weather has improved - xc galore

After what seems to have been an unbelievably long wet spell, the weather finally broke to give us a great weekends soaring with cloud bases around 5,000 feet and reports of very strong thermals.

With this in mind, we saw a good grid out and ready to launch by 10:00 on Saturday along with all the clubs 2 seaters and single seaters. Saturdays tasks seemed to route south/north (and back to Booker), with a mix of tasks ranging from 200km to 300km as well as a full programme of training flights and local soaring (depending of members experience levels).

There was only one landout at Abingdon (who were happy to allow an aerotow retrieve) and a great time was had by all.

 Saturday's grid


As if the airfield isn't wet enough already we were treated to a score of jubilant pilots returning from their respective tasks and dumping several barrels of water each as they finished.

One of Saturdays's finishers


Whilst Sunday wasn't forecast to be as good, it still provided yet more excellent soaring and again the whole of the club fleet was out and busy all day as well as several private owners going cross country. Conditions were much better than the forecasts earlier in the week and just goes to show that you need to get up to the airfield and be ready to fly - the forecasters don't always get it right. Good climbs of 6 to 7 kts were available and with a cloud base around 5,500 altitude, attention needed to be made to ensure no airspace infringements occurred.