The forecast was ify...but the sky looked soooo good. Maybe this time we should have listened to the forecast (maybe I'm just bitter...). It was a strange day....from keys getting locked in trunks (Troy) to me breaking a weak link coming off of the cart (it was good it broke so easily) to broken aluminum (minor).
The clouds looked soooo good, I had convinced Ken to try a 50km triangle...but he and I just glided upwind and after finding ZERO lift, he landed and I high-tailed it back home. I planned on flying again but lost my drive after the incident and noone else stayed up much.
Troy, Peter and Miro did have 30-40 minute flights so there was some lift. Good on you guys.
Nice clouds...but ZERO lift!
Flaring
My camera takes a picture (hands-free) every 5 minutes, so it's coincidence it took a shot. Wayne, notice I do sink a bit in the harness as I flare. I never noticed it before...but I don't think it affects my flare, I had a perfect landing.
London Convergence
Hi Mark and Group:
Wow, I feel so much better! I was growling in my granola this morning thinking about you guys getting all that sky. I am (seriously) bummed that you didn't get better flights. This year has got to turn around soon!
Folks - today was another day when it would have been great to be flying in London. We had another light convergence, with amazing clouds everywhere by early afternoon. There were lots of steamy "sucker cu's" before that, but it was going good by 1:00. Winds on the ground stayed light all day in London, with N or NW direction.
I drove south almost to the Lake Erie lakeshore to see if I could confirm convergence. The excellent sky stopped with a very sharp line 19 km south of the 401 (at just south of St Thomas), or about 8 km north of Lake Erie. The wind in London was light from the N/NW. The wind down at St Thomas at 3:00 PM was S at maybe 7.
By 4:15 the wind south of ST Thomas was quite a bit stronger and gusty from the SSW. I drove back north to the St Thomas airport so I could see a windsock and confirm the wind direction. It was SW at 10G14. The sky cycled very dramatically (high milky white sky with dying Cu's everywhere), and left only a street approximately 5 km wide running parallel to the lakeshore 4:45 PM. The street looked workable the whole time. Lots of birds were thermalling and getting high. My strawberry picking (my official excuse for this convergence investigation) suffered since I was looking up at the birds the whole time...
I drove back to London, where the winds were light from the NW again, the sky was perfectly blue, and watched as fresh cu's popped and developed right up until we went in after supper at 7:30.
Got lots of strawberries, since I brought a buddy with me to help!
Hope we all get high soon,
Wayne
Attached is the wind at 4PM and the climb rates -md
7 glider day at SOGA
Well it sure was great to see a gaggle of gliders again!
Now the gaggle was only able to gather on the ground however as today's sky was incredibly deceptive.
Full of puffy cumies but pretty much everyone that came out got flushed.
I was about the 4th launch and took a bit of higher tow releasing at around 3000 feet. Lots of single-beep teasers all the way down to about 1200' before I got anything I could turn in. I stayed with the same thermal for about an 800' gain but had to leave as I was now downwind a fair bit. Was just about back to the South end of the N/S runway when I got drilled with some sink and didn't wish to challenge the treeline. Had a nice landing in the clear field just on the south side of the trees.
Out today we had Mark Dowsett, Steve Bellerby, Don Vermeer, Miroslaw B., Peter Morgan, Steve Younger, Ken Kinzie and myself. With 3 tug pilots on the field they each also got to hang glide.
So although it wasn't a stellar day.. with what we've had so far it was still wonderful getting out and hanging with friends.
Troy.