Sunday 28th February to Tuesday 2nd March.
Sunday 28th. A light to moderate NNW’ly brought in a lot of low cloud and some light showers that restricted flying to a single Falke flight so another group of Scouts from N Yorkshire were flown on the simulator by Nick Gaunt.
Monday 1st. The change from February to March brought a much needed improvement in the weather with Cu developing by late morning in a light, predominately NW’ly airstream. 6 ATs were flown and there were 2 Falke flights, the ATs being flown by the club Discus, Astir and K21. There was some overdevelopment in the afternoon but 50% of the flights achieved or exceeded an hour with Rob Bailey having 1:20 in the Discus and Malcolm Winter/Duncan Pask having around the half hour in the K21.
Tuesday 2nd. With a forecast dew point of -4C and a forecast surface temperature of 6C in a very light NW, the briefing room was well filled with eager pilots and the day didn’t disappoint. Early flights found some very weak wave at around 3000′ QFE and cumulus started to appear at midday with bases at around 4000′ QNH. 27 ATs were flown off runway 02 with virtually all the club fleet utilised and 2 private owners also rigging. 8 of the flights equalled or exceeded an hour with Reg Rowlinson in the Ka8 and David Watsham in the Discus having around 1:30 each and Andy Parish/Ken Duxbury just under the hour in the DG 1000. The cloud base rose to around 4500′ QNH by late afternoon with small cored thermals giving average climb rates of up to 3/4 kts. The 2 private owners justified their rigging by each having over 3 hours aloft although the day was somewhat tarnished for one of them by the first wheels up landing of the year. The club welcomed back Harry Clark and Duncan Pask had the last flight of the day solo in the K21.