Jaca 2015

Day 4

Big day for the airfield operators

At the end of last year club nimbus were awarded the contract to run the airfield and gliding operation for the next nine years. Today was the grand opening with lots of local and regional dignitaries visiting, and a number taking flight in gliders.

The weather forecast was perfect for the guest flights, but not really what we were looking for in terms of soaring. Clearly the high pressure had established it’s self over France and the surface pressure was now around 1036mb. The sounding showed there was an inversion at around 7500ft and it would not get hot enough to break it.

We knew it would be a late start today, so once the gliders were at the launch-point all there was nothing else to do apart from chill out and watch all the visitors having their trial flights. By 2pm the guests ha finished flying and it was about time that we threw something into the air. As none of the local gliders had managed to stay airborne for very long we figured that it was going to require a high to into the mountains.

First to go was Merv and Julian Richardson in their DG 1000, they towed to the snow line on stage 3 and contacted with the lift on the face of Blancas. The DG and Duo then launched, but failed to find anything usable and once we were down below 5000ft the air was remarkably stable. After that we decided that another tow would be a waste of money so the gliders were put away by 4pm. Merv arrived back around 5pm having managed to stay high on the local peaks

The evening meal was curtsey of our land lady Toya. An excellent evening in the company of all the Lasham members and some of the Local pilots followed by music and singing in Spanish. Truly a night to remember!!

Colin