Day 5

The Final day.

Expeditions tend to be an exercise in looking at every possible source for a weather forecast that looks promising and discarding the rest. The advent of the I phone now means that people are dishing out info on the latest charts and sat pictures at the launch point but for my money it still doesn’t beat using mark one eyeball to look at the sky and workout what’s going on.

Lots of gliders were rigging and ready to go by 9:30 today but the pilots were showing signs of reluctance to be the first to launch. Anyway a bit of gentle arm-twisting got Dave Draper into his LS 8 and away as the clouds was beginning to open up. It took a while for the wave to get properly set up but once people were reporting 2kt climbs the normal rush for a launch started.

All the Lasham gliders were thrown at the sky and most reported that the wave topped out at around 10,000ft. Dave Drapers persistence paid off and after 3hours he reached 16,000ft, which was enough for gold height. All the Lasham team members had good flights today and everyone finished the day with smiles on their faces. Sometimes have to remind myself that it’s a privilege to go wave flying in such a beautiful area.

Landing at Aboyne has proved a little challenging for some pilots from other clubs this week and the usual runway excursions have not failed to disappoint the spectators and frustrate there CFI’s. I have always wondered what happens when you hit your head really hard on the canopy, now i know, you make a round hole in it!

The social side of the Lasham expeditions are for a lot of people just as important as the flying and on that front this week has been excellent. The house we have rented this year is superb with all the facilities to make it feel like a home from home. The expedition members have been great company this week and have made my life easy, so thank you all.

The weather for Friday can best be described by the photo!

Colin