Friday 15th to Monday 18th.
Friday to Monday. The moist SE’ly airstream continued through Friday and Saturday keeping the site in cloud. The wind speed increased slowly to around 20 knots on Friday and then decreased on Saturday, while around 25 mm of sleet/wet snow fell over the period, mostly on Saturday. Thankfully, the temperature rose above freezing during daytime Friday and continued to rise, reaching the dizzy heights of 6C on Monday with the result that a relatively rapid thaw started. Sunny intervals and a light W’ly on Sunday brought a number of members to the site, but the state of the metalled access road persuaded many to park at the Visitor Centre at the top of Sutton Bank and walk in. John Marsh, aided by Robin Hutchinson used the bucket equipped Red tractor to clear the worst of the snow from in front of the hangars, but with the thaw well underway, the field was too wet to allow flying operations. A number of members availed themselves of the presence of Vicky in the office to pay their annual subs. Visiting the site on Monday the 18th, I was dissuaded from using the metalled access road by a passing motorist as it was covered with rutted, wet ice. After parking near the Visitor centre, my walk along the metalled access road confirmed is perilous state, although the road surface was visible in a few places. The approach to the right hand bend was particularly difficult with a combination of wet ice, deep ruts and slush. The airfield had turned green, with the vast majority of the snow gone, the only significant areas of snow being around the buildings and trailers. A walk up runway 24 and 02 revealed the former to be in surprisingly good condition, although the usual wet patches still had melting snow in them and the pond along the winch track was extensive. Overall, runway 20/02 was much wetter. While on site Les Rayment and Bill Payton arrived, both having driven down the metalled access road and Bill having driven onto the site. With no prospect of flying due to the state of the airfield and low cloud, although wave was visible both from the site and on the satpics, we all left site around lunch time, with Les and I performing a little road maintenance work around the worst of the icy ruts on the metalled access road, allowing Les to make a successful departure while simultaneously giving me a lift back to the Visitor centre. The weather forecast for the next few days promises above freezing temperatures during the day and no significant rain, so conditions should continue to improve both on the site and the access road.