Archive for April, 2016

Thursday 28th April Extra

Thursday 28th Extra.   The continuing cold spring may be becoming a little wearying, but wider nature is confident enough of the eventual return of warmer weather to have started  raising a family, as this photo of a nest full of Skylark's eggs, photographed by Rob Bailey on the  reclaimed land at the NE end of […] Read More...

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Wednesday 27th to Thursday 28th April

Wednesday 27th.  A sunny start to the day with a light to moderate N'ly blowing, soon developed extensive, low base Cumulus that showed strong vertical development and led to an afternoon of heavy and slow moving showers of hail and snow, the wind decreasing to become light from the W and the site turning white […] Read More...

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Saturday 23rd to Tuesday 26th April.

Saturday 23rd.  Saturday dawned with the  cold, Arctic, unstable airmass still in place, the light to moderate N'ly wind pegging the maximum temperature to 6,5C and Cu starting to blossom by mid morning.  The prospect of a good soaring day led to 8 private owner launches out of the 18 of the day, with a […] Read More...

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Thursday 21st to Friday 22nd April

Thursday 21st.  The high pressure  that had brought the pleasant Spring weather, slowly  transferred its centre into the Atlantic, with the result that the S'ly wind slowly backed into the NE, a prelude to the return of an Arctic air mass, but not before the highest temperature of the year was reached, 15.2C.  Skies were again blue […] Read More...

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Tuesday 19th to Wednesday 20th April.

Tuesday 19th.  The intensifying high brought excellent thermic conditions to Sutton, with strong, 5/6 kt  thermals, a 5,000' asl cloud base, a light N'ly, clear visibility and, later in the day, a sea breeze front that resulted in the wind becoming E'ly as the front crossed the site.  36 ATs were flown off runway 02, with 23 […] Read More...

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Sunday 17th to Monday 18th.

Sunday 17th.  The snow showers of Saturday had all disappeared leaving behind a cold airmass that initially provided a light to moderate NW'ly flow which soon backed into the W.  Good looking Cumulus soon started to develop, the forecast and conditions encouraging a goodly number of private owners to rig and then disappear to all points […] Read More...

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Wednesday 13th to Saturday 16th April.

Wednesday 13th.  The site was still under the  influence of fronts circulating around a depression to the SW of the UK and this meant another cloudy and wet day at Sutton, a further 5 mm of rain falling over the 24 hour period, the wind being a light NE'ly.  Unsurprisingly, there was no flying  although […] Read More...

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Saturday 9th to Tuesday 12th April

Saturday 9th.  A  passing front deposited 5.5 mm of rain in the early morning, and its residual cloud delayed the start  of flying until the early afternoon, although from then on, conditions became soarable with every one of the 8 ATs of the day exceeding 30 minutes, including the day's 2 First Flight pupils.  However, […] Read More...

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Thursday 7th to Friday 8th April

Thursday 7th.   Another day of showers in a light to moderate predominately N'ly wind, the showers becoming heavy in the afternoon with hail.  In spite of this, 13 ATs were flown, all in 2 seaters, although soaring conditions were noticeable by their absence with no flights over 30  minutes.  3,000' tows for the 5 […] Read More...

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Friday 1st to Wednesday 6th April

Friday 1st.  A cloudy air stream in a moderate to fresh  S'ly flow brought some patchy  rain from mid afternoon,  the rain being accompanied by some gusty winds, these peaking at around 37 kts.  The onset of the rain and strong winds led to flying being abandoned for the day around 1500 hrs after 8 ATs […] Read More...

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