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I arrived at Deeside Gliding club to low cloud on the local hills. That did lift during the day but it never looked like being a good soaring day. It was nice to be back at DGC though. Nothing much had changed in the last 2 years so it all felt instantly familiar on arrival and I felt at home.
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Low cloud fragmenting on the hills. |
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A rainbow greeted us to the airfield in the morning. | Interesting looking cloud over Morven. | Rob and Dave preparing to launch. Colin helping Dave out with a seat issue. |
On 12th it was calm and dry. I walked up Lochnagar, starting at dawn. See the Scotland 2009 pages for pictures from that walk. On the 13th it was wet and unflyable all day. I took no pictures. On the 14th it was still calm, but flyable if not soarable. I had my photographer hat on and here are the best of my pictures from this day.
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Early morning fog and smoke on the hills. Another calm day means no wave. | The ground was sodden from yesterday's rain. The van couldn't pull 776 up the hill. So Howard and Colin resorted to pulling on the rope by hand. | Nice cloudscape. | Foggy reflection in a flood water puddle near runway 27N. | K21 431 in no rush to go anywhere with a vertical windsock behind. |
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I think that trailer could do with a clean. | Russell coming in to land in his Ventus 2cxt. | Rob cleared to fly the K21 solo goes for a launch. |
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Rob on tow. | Colin and Dave walking the DG1000 to the launchpoint. | Rob coming in to land on runway 09S. | The red pawnee tug landing. | Dave and Colin strapping into the DG1000, assisted by Graham and Howard. |
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Macro shot of a midge on the K21's wing! | Howard seeing off Dave and Colin. | An intriguing wavey looking hole in the cloud. | Steve launching in the K21, seen off by Rob. Sorry Rob the shutter went with your arm in an 'unfortunate' position while giving the all out signal...! |
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Dave and Colin landing the DG1000 after investigating some potentially wavey looking clouds but failing to find any lift. | Morven's grown an intriguing cap cloud. | Richard launching in the Discus. Seen off by Dave. |
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The sky looks more wavey as it gets dark. Alas no lift that anybody could find. | Dave, Rob, Graham and Colin (Port wing) and not sure (Starboard wing) pushing the tug to its hangar at the end of the day. | Morven's cap cloud grows and extends downwind as it gets dark. | A spectacular 2 shot long exposure panorama of a very busy post sunset sky. |
After what was looking like a 4th consecutive unsoarable day (and unflyable too), a trough came through with a clearance opening up behind it. This was totally unexpected as it wasn't forecast to happen like this. But with a breeze picking up a wave gap was opening up between the trough and the cold front. I took these pictures mid afternoon as we got the gliders out, spurred on by the appearance of lenticulars behind the trough. Indeed we were not disappointed. See the main page for the flight itself that followed.
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The sky cleared suddenly mid afternoon as a hole opened up behind a trough. | Low cloud on Morven and closer by as the trough clears. | As the trough cleared and the wind picked up all these pretty and frilly lenticulars appeared. A sign of what was about to happen. At last after more than 3 days of calm conditions some wave was setting up. | Low cumulus contrasting with high cirrus associated with the back of the departing trough. |