Day 2

Today the wind was starting to come from a Northerly direction and the drop in temperature meant that everyone was digging out their thermal layers and thick jackets.

The morning briefing promised good wave when the wind moved round to the North, and anything that was happening on the other side of the mountains would not come our way! As you can probably gather it didn't turn out as briefed.

By the time the gliders were parked at the end of the runway the wind was already blowing from the North West at around 25kts. Once launching started we had a full on cross wind which meant that the take-offs were interesting.

 Once we were airborne it was evident that the wave was working, but not particularly clear as to where. I spent the next hour being tossed around in the rotor before connecting with it at around 7000ft. The climb appeared to slow down at 8000ft and the best height that anyone achieved was 12000ft.

While we were flying there was clear signs that the showers were building over the mountains, but they appeared to be being broken up by the wave. About 40 mins into the second flight in the afternoon, we got a radio call from the ground advising us to stay local as the snow showers were now close to the airfield. At that point the decision was made to start descending, and by the time we were down to circuit height it was snowing on the airfield, and you couldn't see the ground to the North. All the gliders arrived back safely and by 5pm was were packed away in the hangar.

Colin