Saturday 25th May

After the disappointing weather last weekend it was great to see everyone lined up at the launch point waiting on the ideal time to take a launch.  The early training flights were used as an indicator of thermal activity and once the sky became active enough for the club pundits there were many really good flights.  We also had quite a few visitors for Air Experience flights and the conditions were ideal with great visibility giving superb views of the Northumberland countryside.

Some pics from the day (Click on photo to see full size):

Pilot waiting for a tow watching the SuperCub landing

























K21 returning to the launch point after a flight

LS4 (Andy Bardgett -See next blog) - Hook On


LS4 - Up Slack


LS4 - Up and Away

Saturday 25th May - "The Old Git's Triangle" Supplementary Task

Today was fantastic and provided great conditions for a photo gathering trip! The mission, to get some photos for the supplementary task attached to a popular club challenge - "The Old Git's Triangle".  Andy Bardgett, having made a simple camera mount, (remember those days)  took several shots per location to make sure he caught the point.

His observations on the task:

"Well the white cattle are hard to spot (helped by having walked around Chillingham park and seen the cattle just a few weeks ago) so there are 2 photos showing the castle & lake then, lake & cattle. They are small cattle, so they look like sheep from the air - honest ! The Windy Gyle location, Lord Russell's Cairn, is not very obvious from the air and doesn't really stand out. Finally, I didn't get to Lindisfarne. A weak sea breeze had set up quite a long way inland so I have that photo still to collect. I think it's going to have to be a wave day for that one !"

Brizlee Wood Radar

























Chiilingham Castle


Chiilingham White Cattle in the centre - really !


Cragside

























Windy Gyle

























Sainsbury's, Kelso (Nectar Points please!)

























Charterhall

























Lindisfarne - not quite















Sunday 5th May

Today saw a slow start despite wave being forecast. Although there were signs of wave, with a rather raggy gap between the site and Wooler, the first few launches weren't very succesful. However, Alastair Fish, with his glider fully fettled from its ARC, found reliable lift and was away !

The wave got better later in the day, producing a climb to just over 12,000', but was rather localised which the photo below illustrates. Having said that there was reduced sink to the N of the site allowing Bill Stephen & Kate Ashley in the K21 and Jules Sutton in the Lak a romp out to Berwick and back. Cheviot does generate some wonderful wave !

Bill & Kate in the K21

Jules in the Lak 17


The unusual 'stack' produced by this wave