Week 6 - Day 4

Scraggy cumulus about from dawn, with a band of cirrus advancing from the West. The morning’s soundings showed again a large amount of instability, coupled with 100% humidity – although we were assured that this pairing did not write off flying. We were ready by about 11, and were on the pan that adjoins the main runway (Asphalto) by 11:30. The sky looked vaguely usable with a mix of stratocumulus and small cu but with very little sun getting anywhere near the ground, we went for lunch. After a couple of hours of sitting around, if anything the weather had gotten worse; thicker cirrus cover, no sun to be seen anywhere, and all of the convective cloud of any description was several km’s to the south beyond a small ridge, which was judged to be too far. We got caught in a shower and were forced to put the Duo back into the hangar, but we were sure not to dismiss the chance of the conditions improving. That they did, but only slightly, leaving a stratus scattered with embedded (and deceptively dark) cumulus, very similar to before the shower, but the better looking cloud was over a slightly larger area now to the north and west of the site as well. We took a launch at just after 3pm, and the tow was ominously smooth. We found the odd half knot climb to the south of the airfield but very little else, making the decision to cross over to the into wind ridges of Stage 1 to the north did little, and we were back on the ground within 45 minutes of take-off. It looks like we’ll have some flying tomorrow afternoon, but I think even the Met Guys are having trouble predicting the progress of the fronts and troughs.