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After rain, rain and more rain its hard to keep motivated with constant weather checks for any windows of opportunity, but yesterday (Thu 6AUG20) was one of those days.
With a ridge of HP building following multiple fronts on Wednesday night Thursday morning was forecast to be light SSW winds in the boarders. With the real lack of flying this year, I was torn between Dungavel and Tinto due to the westerly component in the forecast but Tinto was the right choice. The wind was backing through the morning so the westerly component was forecast to come good for Tinto South but with an increase in met wind speed on an already moderate Southerly. Caution was the word for the day in my mind, with a lack of flying and currency, the margin for error must be considered! Speedbar "check!"
It looked to be good from 9am onwards and I arrived at half 9 to meet Matt W who had just arrived. As we walked up we watched Sam S takeoff to show it was good and easily soarable. I noticed Sam pushing out from the hill checking his ability to penetrate into wind, which he did with ease. Shortly after, Steve H took-off also showing it was a good day to be out :-)
Matt and I walked up 2/3 of the hill before deciding we were high enough to soar up but low enough to manage our takeoff with the wind strength. I really focused on all my pre-flight checks, aware of my lack of flying this year.
Matt was first in the air between us, he climbed up in the lift band after take-off and away to join Sam and Steve. Some final checks and see where the others were and I joined them to enjoy very pleasant soaring conditions, easy to stay up with light thermals which we all made use of to explore the hill. As Matt had got some height he was already heading for Tinto with westerly element of our wind helping him along and making the shoulder soarable when he arrived. Soon Steve and Sam arrived to join him but I needed a bit more height to make it over the col between green hill and big Tinto. That was manageable with small light thermals topping me up from the lift band and off I went to join them. Shortly after passing the col, I noticed some buzzards who were in lift but I was really rather concerned they may fly into my lines as they flew towards me. I found the lift they were in and topped up before arriving about the ski jump height on Tinto with easy soaring conditions. The others showed it was easy to push out and fly over the summit at trim speed as we all expected the wind speed to increase and I think we all had noon as our cut off when we expected conditions to be too much. Matt and I flew in a lovely smooth thermal up to base (3000ft I think) where many options to escape were available.
I noticed Steve and Sam had heading back over towards the landing field, aware of the conditions and that they may also have to leave for their own reasons, I checked my ground speed and position from the hill and all was well.
Matt too headed over and I climbed back up to base and then thought I would see how far into wind I could make it hoping I could find a thermal upwind. I made it almost to the reservoir they have built in the field SW of Tinto before deciding I should turn back. All the time I knew I would have a speedy return with the wind assisting and back to the landing field with a huge smile :-)
Even after packing up others were going up and taking off so a great day was had by many.
Lets hope for a good weekend too :-)