Friday and Saturday 15th-16th October - Wave atlast!

Well! Yesterday just after the blog was posted, a blue hole opened out of nowhere and drifted over us. There was enough of a breeze to generate some wave. Mike and Steve soared up to the low 7000's in the K21. Richard got the Discus to the upper 7000's. Howard and Rob were in the DG1000 and made 8000 in the Braemar area. We all had fun getting back just before sunset when the gaps suddely and rapidly closed beneath us. But all down safely so all was well.

Today, Friday, was a better day with a moderate NNW wind blowing. Graham set off early in the Discus and got up to 13 or 14k before being called down. Everyone flew today. Some more successful than others. I swiped SH4 at lunchtime and had an entertaining flight. Towed to almost 4000 feet and still failed to find the wave. Fell down to 1500 feet on the ridge, clawed my way up to just over 2000 feet, then managed to thermal up to cloudbase at just over 3000 feet before connecting with the wave again near Ballater. At 7000 or so I pushed west to Braemar and to the NW of there climbed again all the way to FL195. Fun fun fun!

Now all the gliders have been derigged and ready to begin their long haul home to Lasham. This evening we plan to have fish and chips at Ravenswood.

Howard took this exquisite shot of a lenticular in the Braemar area yesterday:
I managed a 100 degree panorama as Richard and I were headed Eastwards back yesterday. There was a hole near the horizon 2km NNE of the airfield through which we safely slotted.

Congratulations to all those who had successful badge flights, and to a successful expedition. Here's to next year.

-Mike

Monday - Thursday 12th-15th October 2009

On Monday at Aboyne it was a rather calm day. Rob Ward got cleared by Colin to go solo in 431. It was a quiet day though. Perhaps a few thermals for an hour or so. Mike walked to the summit of Lochnagar while about 5 others did the circuit around Loch Muick. In the evening Howard cooked a delicious chili concarne meal back at Ravenswood.

Tuesday was totally unflyable due to persistent low cloud obscuring the local ridges and intermittent rain. Again little wind to shift things through. Much tea drinking to be had. In the evening we went to an Italian restaurant in Ballater.

Wednesday was another cloudy calm day but atleast this time it was dry with chinks of occasional sunchine. Some curious lenticulars early and late were 'fools wave' but had Dave tempted anyway. It was mostly unreachable. Several flights were had though in the fairly calm and still air. Colin and Dave did have fun attempting to ridge soar the south side ridge in near nil wind. In the evening we went to the Boat Inn.

Today, Thursday, yet another calm day presented itself. Started wet, but a small gap teased us for a short while before a cold front started to move in. Not looking promising this afternoon. Drank more tea. Currently we plan a cook in this evening and Ballater fish and chips tomorrow.

Tomorrow holds some final desperate hope of some northerly wave. The soundings suggest up to 20kts from the north but the Bracknell synoptics look rather calmer. So let's hope for a blend that will mean we can launch and have one last climb in wave before we head home again.

Finally a couple of pictures. See if you can supply a caption to this picture from Sunday:

Here is a 2 shot panorama that Mike took somewhere above Morven on Sunday:

-Mike

Better late than never.
Sunday 11th

In the interests of maintaining my tradition at Aboyne I managed to arrive 12 hours after everyone else so I thought I would carry on that theme with the Blog.

Having driven overnight I arrived at the airfield to find the local pilots trying to decipher the conflicting weather data from the Internet. We all decided that mark one eyeball and watching what was happening to the sky would be a better indicator. After an hour of watching the wave slot over the Lochs (Lakes) the first radio call of someone at 9000ft caused a bit of a rush for launches.

To cut a long story short the wave over the Dee valley stayed all day allowing Graham Bell to get to 20,000ft for his Diamond Height. Mike Rubin and his P2 also went to over twenty thousand.

I also went up to FL 195 West of Braemar with Dave Williams in the back seat of the DG 1000 as my safety pilot. While we were still climbing at 4 knots we both decided that we might have exceeded the service ceiling of our oxygen set up by a few thousand feet and it was time to go down. Lesson learnt and I will take the facemasks instead of cannulas next time.

Colin

Friday 9th

Rain, bleaaaargh! (Or depending on your viewpoint, A rest day, thank goodness!). So with a clear indication that the weather was not going to play ball, the well-oiled machinery that is the social whirl of Lasham expeditions swung into action. Sub expeditions were launched to the distilleries of Northern Scotland, and The McDonalds in Aberdeen.

For the evening, an expedition meal was prepared, and despite the Floyd-like alcholic tendencies of the cooks was finally delivered to universal acclaim.

And so to bed..........

Today we threw the gliders willy nilly into the sky, and much to our surprise they stayed there. Bob took the DG to Feshiebridge (and rather thoughtfully brought it back), and then demonstrated to Dave how to ridge soar, extending the downwind leg to Ballater at 1,000'. Derek and Glynn took 431 up to 12,000 + and everyone else just went up high in the marvellous wave, and ............... Pete Clark got GOLD!!!!!, in the DG, so now we are looking forward to a Champagne supper.

Wednesday 7th

We got up ludicrously early on the promise of wave. We hunted down and cajoled the tug pilots and then launched with gay abandon into the wide blue yonder. Unfortunately the 'blueness' should have been a hint. After retrieving our gliders with monotonous regularity from in front of the clubhouse and then willfully throwing them back into the sky, reality slowly dawned.

Coupled with a typical Deeside lamentable launch rate the frustration levels went sky-high causing one member to eject teddies and himself from SH4 and go off in a huff. Tomorrow's got to be better than this!

(previous paragraph edited - you should have seen it before we toned it down)

The Chinese and Chippie takaways were good.

Frustrations are mounting to the point where arguements regarding spelling and grammar in the blog are achieving pride of place.

Anyway, in the words of Kenny Rogers, 'Some days are diamonds, some days are stones...'

view from sh4