Wednesday 21 July 2010

Wednesday Wave!

Wednesday did not start very well. First the Tug broke down then the winch tow-out truck got a puncture so expectations were poor for the rest of the day. The sky looked odd all day with possible wave effects. With a borrowed Tug on line we started to launch.

I joined the queue pulling off in strong thermal lift which then turned into strong and persistent sink. At 1500' I contacted good lift again averaging 4.5 to 4000'. Mike Lindsey radioed to say he was in wave at 8000' north of the site. Pushing forward under the cloud to see what would happen I also contacted smooth solid lift. I turned along he front edge and it improved to 8 up for a while. after a beat or two I was at 7000'. Venturing further east I reached 8000' over BUN. scuttling back home before the rain came in. Mike had topped out over 9000' in the meantime. A great day after all.

The following from Mike Lindsay
"I've been gliding at Tib since 1968 and never managed to contact wave before away from the hills. Not quite like mountain soaring, for one thing the clouds were moving downwind, albeit much slower than the wind speed.
There was a promising looking cloud just north of Diss, base at about 5500. I got to the upwind side of it and fairly gradually was able to climb way above it.
Fantastic! ..."
He actually reach 9700ft!
"I was wondering if I should try to make Gold height, but I couldn't find any more lift.  It looked good towards the coast, but then it showed signs of closing in. It took about half an hour to get down."


Well done to both
Jan