2 Days of Flying

After 2 days of good flying, we are again faced with a gloomy sky.

Wednesday saw a nice fine day but with quite a strong northerly wind. We tasked to the north and then East with the plan of getting onto the northern face of the Tatras to sample the ridges. We had great glides into wind after started, aided by some good streeting, firstly along the Western edge of the valley and then crossing to the Eastern side to avoid turbulance from the wind. Unfortunately a good climb was not to be had and we ended up scratched at the top of the valley trying to beat the wind and climb high enough to progress. eventually we moved on and got across to some north facing ridges but there was little organised ridge lift. Further north we again climbed steadily and as we were in the first sector decided to turn. The vista to the East was not good, cloud low on the Tatras and gloomy, the whole sky having overdeveloped by this stage. Being our first flight we decided to cancel this leg of the task and return to the southern turnpoint for home. A reasonably uneventful trip home followed, the interesting statistic was the downwind glides were not as good as the upwind ones earlier.

Yesterday, another good day with less wind. The forecast for the Tatras area was for extreme wind so we elected a task that took us north again and then south past Prievidza and on to the east where we had not been before. a change was forecast for mid-afternoon. We launched about 11:30am and started well at just above 7000ft. The climbs were better but still some very tight and rough cores were about as well as some misleading bubbles that showed good promise for the first turn or 2 and then vanished. A little frustrating when pair flying as this resulted in a pilot calling a climb which lasted just enough for the other guy to join and find nothing. Both Allan and I fell victim to this mischievous bubbling.

The first leg was uneventful, after turning South we landed the climb of the day abeam Prievidsa. I had the mechanical vario pegged at >5ms for the first few turns and the climb settled to about 8 knots on the averager for the rest of the climb! Ye Ha! Again some good cus helped the cruise but after turning east the change was starting to be visible to the NE. The Eastern run was good after avoiding a blue hole. We has another great climb near the town of Zvolen before entering the sector. By this time we were discussing the route back West, the change was coming in and the sky to the North West looking particularly gloomy and hazy. After testing the clouds just inside the sector, the choice was to double back to avoid the gloom.

On the leg back I had got somewhat vertically separated from Allan and the next climb didn't help with me unable to match Allan's climb rate. The thermals here are not as evenly predictable and a few hundred feet separation can give a fair difference in climb rate. Allan moved on and relayed climb info back to me which helped in my decisions to stay/go. Coupled with Team codes on Winpilot, I was able to make up some of the losses and get back into contact. Good stuff! As we progressed East we were getting into decision time for climb to get us back across the ridges into the Prievidza valley. Some fiddling around in weaker stuff was eventually rewarded with a stronger climb to clear the terrain and give a 2 knot glide home. Allan set off just before me as he was still a bit higher and reported some very good air ahead. I followed, decides to stop at the good air and top up as allan had then reported strong sink. I took the climb to cloudbase as it was about 8 knots and it put me 600ft above a 4 knot glide. By this time Allan had been getting nailed with lee side sink and stopped to top up in 4 knots. We both ended up with quite a hot final glide and landed with big smiles into the gloomy changed weather.

Today (Friday) I'm in tidy-up mode, catching up on things and sorting equipment, chargers etc. We need to get the fuselage out and repair a broken wire and possibly change the TE tubing to isolate the 2 varios better.