My Flying

The weather prediction for thermal activity today did not look very promising (in other words: kak) and was very much inline with the previous months poor soaring weather. It however did indicate that a South Easter might blow in the afternoon and this meant that our ridge would most likely work.

The first few winch launches of the Twin resulted in a predictable short circuit flight while the sky looked very unpromising. The runway was changed from 08 to 16 and I took a launch in the Single and was very surprised and HEPPY to find some small broken bits of lift, just after releasing, which after exploiting as much as possible I managed to convert into some height and from there the lift just got stronger and stronger.

I peaked out at 3500 feet after about 25 minutes and then scrapped around looking for lift which became more and more broken and weak as the South Easter starting to pick up and blow the already weak thermals away. After this it was a slow glide down to the deck for not my best landing.

Two hours later and once the South Easter was better established, I took the Single up and soared the ridge for a while having lots of fun with another glider up there. Unfortunately for me someone else also wanted to fly the Single and I returned after a half and hour to accommodate them and had a much nicer landing on 16L.

So in the end not a bad day's flying at 231.70ZAR and some valuable soaring and landing practice.