Sunday 26th April

Saturday's superb afternoon  thermals were followed by some pretty good ones on Sunday. After a slightly tricky start the lift built up steadily and, for a few hours, we had cracking conditions. Your blogger flew around the 'Old Gits' Triangle' albeit with a large detour on the way to Rothbury when rain looked to have killed the task. Having diverted to Powburn a clear slot emerged allowing the task to be completed. Adrian Loening went on an exploratory trip towards Whiteadder Reservoir but turned back at Duns, again because of the showers. Eventually these became quite widespread and, with some being of sleet and snow, this put and end to the days flying.

Thursday 9th April

It was agreed that no one could remember a flying week where we did so much flying ! The running total so far was 104 launches but comment was made that, whilst we have had busier days in terms of number of launches, these were because pilots had problems staying up and took re-lights. This week pilots have taken off only to stay up for 2, 3, 4 or 5 hours. It will be interesting to work out the total number of hours flown this week.

Today provided wave induced thermals which went to the top of a heavy inversion around 5000' Later in the day the wave became stronger and the later launches got to around 9000'. With such a stable high pressure area producing a marked inversion and not helped by heather burning on the high ground, (which, incidently, could be seen on the various satellite images), the visibility was awful. The photo below shows the stark contrast in air quality at the top of the inversion.


Tango Papa at the top of the inversion

Tuesday 7th April

Whilst conditions didn't seem to match the weather forecast and were not the easiest, we enjoyed another day of wonderful Milfield soaring today. Roger Starling once again made a pig of himself with a 4h 20m flight but was beaten to Hog of the Day title by Andrew Cluskey who managed 4h 25m ! Mind, Andrew Johnston clocked up 5h 40m in 2 flights - these visitors do make the most of their trips.

Although conditions were tricky and it was quite rough there were some descent thermals around. Your blogger shared a thermal with Bill Winthrop which for a while was averaging 7.5 kts ! And, of course, it wouldn't be Milfield without a spot of wave. At the end of the day the thermals were working up into a raggy line of lift which eventually turned into wave but which only worked to around 5000'.

Your blogger has flown at Milfield since 1975 and is still discovering new sights. I think this is one of the more impressive hill forts which, I think, is on Mow Law, just South of Yetholm. I can't ever remember seeing this before. Wow !