Three in a row

No repeat of Wednesday

Paul, Rick, Charlie, and I boarded the ferry yet again even though the fore casted "sunny skies with highs of 13" weren't materializing. Once we arrived at the LZ, however, the high cirrus cloud burned off and the sun was out and Cu's were forming!

(Click photo for more images -> )

Twenty minutes later, it had reverted back to being overcast. The lapse rate was good though, so up we went with our faithful retrieve driver Kuno!

On launch we found light cycles rolling in and Charlie launched first, skimming a fair ways down before the ground fell away. Rick was next and he got a stronger, more westerly cycle. Both Charlie and Rick found a strong easterly wind once they cleared the house thermal area which made thermalling basically ineffective.

As Paul set up, the sun started coming out but with it, OTB cycles.
After some patience, one abort, and some more patience, he had a clean launch and, like the boys before him, a strong east wind greeted him in the valley.

I was thinking of joining Kuno for the drive back down but a 15km straight in and steady wind started blowing so I launched easily and, once in the valley, tried to punch upwind and drift back with some thermals but the downwind leg was too long. Easy winds to land in though!

All told, over the past 3 days, we've had 16 flights with lots of airtime and we've gained some new insights into flying Lower Bruce.
And now the weather has turned for the worse again. Office work beckons...

Youtube video of Rick's first launch yesterday: