Aboyne Day 6

Today the wind was easterly and the sky was – mostly – thermic. Kevin did two solos in SH9 – his first at Aboyne; and the second was an hour and a minute long. Not bad for mid-October. Darren flew SH4 again (“I’ve been spoilt, really,” he says) and Geoff had three flights in the Duo. John and Helen went soaring in 775 and had the privilege of thermalling with a golden eagle, which demonstrated its superior ability with a certain amount of elegant disdain.

Friday was the final day of week 1 of the Lasham expedition and what a great week it’s been: six out of six soaring days, five of them wave. We’ll be heading off into Englandshire now and there'll be an intermission until after the weekend changeover. Thanks to all of you who’ve been reading. We leave you with a few more photos...

Above, from left: Darren Smith, Kevin Wood, Dave Paffett, John Simmonds, Helen Evans and Geoff Martin are six of the seven expedition members on Week 1 – David Williams was off-site (Pic: Jonathon Morris)

Above: Today we launched and landed to the east. This shot shows the Duo about to go thermal soaring. The Deeside clubhouse is on the north of the site, on the left of the photo (Pic: Helen Evans) 

Above: Geoff Martin pushing down on the nose of the Duo, preparing to move it to the launchpoint, today (Pic: Helen Evans)

Above: Kevin Wood after soloing the Grob, SH9 (Pic: Helen Evans)

Above: Loch Kinord (left) and Loch Davan in the sunshine – note the wind shadow effects (Pic: Kevin Wood)

Above: Thermalling above Aboyne (Darren Smith)

Above and below: Graham Bell took these photographs on his way down from the base of the wave box, between Ballater and Aboyne, on Tuesday, October 8 (Pics: Graham Bell)

Below: Close of play today – end of week 1 of the Lasham expedition to Aboyne. Two more weeks to go. (Pic: Kevin Wood)