Monday 31st March

An initial poor start to the day with some light drizzle on looking out of the bedroom window. This however rapidly cleared up over breakfast to give fine sunny day. Not as hot as yesterday, and with a stronger wind with a lot more west in it. There were sighs of wave activity throughout the day and there are rumors that a couple of locals had got up to over twelve thousand feet further inland. John flew first and landed at lunch time with a broad grin on his face having contacted weak wave climbing several times to four and a half thousand feet over the loch. Will flew the Vega for the rest of the afternoon and eventually managed to climb away in weak wave to six and a half thousand feet. Again this was local, just in the area of the airfield. This evening we dined at a very posh county house hotel. The food was excellent with every one clearing their plates. The highlight of the meal though was the chef agreeing to make me a bowl of custard from scratch. We all agreed that this was amongst the best tasting custard ever. The forecast for tomorrow also sounds promising.

The Bishop Hill from the airfield

Sunday

A nice sunny day with a cold south to south westerly wind of around 15 knots. After a large full breakfast we joined the locals for site checks. Site checks completed, after lunch Will took the first launch in the Vega. Flying for a couple of hours in hill, thermal and bits of weak wave Will managed to get to 4500 feet in thermals. Mike had the second flight keeping the aircraft airborne for another couple of hours until it was time for tea. The hospitality offed by the club has been so good with the minimum of fuss and excellent facilities that we have decided to stay at the club for the rest of the week, canceling the hotel we had tentatively book.

Portmoak visit

This weekend the Vega and its 3 syndicate members, John, Martin (Will) and Mike, are venturing north for the week. We hope to be sampling the wave and hospitality offered by the Scottish Gliding Union at Portmoak. If the weather does not generate any wave we will sample the hill lift, and if the hill doesn't work we will sample the whisky which we know will work. A picture from my last trip to Portmoak. (Can you guess the year and names?)

Norfolk Gliding Club Expeditions

This blog is started to give an area of NGC pilots on trips and expeditions a place to write there accounts of flying and generally having fun at other clubs. This Spring we have a number of groups travelling to Portmoak, Sutton Bank and Talgarth.