Aboyne Week 2

Day 1.

The official day one of the second week was for some spent walking, others visited places of interest and the few die-hard’s who had nothing better to do than stay on the airfield, drink tea in the clubhouse and watch the rain fall radar on there computers

The only flying that took place was an early evening air test of a Pegasus by the boys from “the other place”

Day 2.

At last a wave day.
Clear sky’s and a moderate southerly wind was just what was needed after yesterday’s rain and I have to say that I was rather surprised to be the first person on the airfield at 8am. Anyway the slick Lasham team had the hangar un-packed and the gliders parked in prime positions at the launch point before the opposition had started to rig.

First launch at 9:30 was into a very confused looking sky with lots of rotor cloud and no defined edges to work and it wasn’t until we passed through 5000ft that it became clear how the wave was orientated. The wind at 7000ft was forty knots and increasing but the lift appeared to stop. If you failed to connect with the wave as we did on the second flight you then spent your time battling with the rotor thermals and strong turbulence knowing that there was little chance of getting back into the wave.

By the time of our third launch in the afternoon it was obviously getting rough at low level and the increasing wind had positioned the rotor over the Airfield. It was not long after we launched that the tug pilots decided that they did not want to carry on launching. In these conditions landing at Aboyne turns into a good spectators sport from the ground and in the cockpit.

At about 5pm the wind had dropped so we persuaded the tug pilot to try another launch and after landing he said that this really was enough and the aircraft was going away. Those that were still airborne had the best part of the day and Graham Bell got to Flight level 195 and was still climbing at 7kts.

Colin