Wed 4th May: Conditions: Westerly. Good soaring.

Winch launch:

Instructor notes:

YES! Ready for solo! Great!

Personal notes:

I want to say here that getting an hour’s flight from a winch launch is quite an accomplishment. On this day it was blue, i.e. no clouds to show you where you could find the thermals. So I was quite pleased, especially as when flying with the instructor I had been trying to stay on the south side of the airfield and not getting much lift. When solo however, I went to the north east where there is an oil “gathering” terminal and found what we call stonking lift up to the ceiling (max height) above Lasham that you can fly before going into an airway. (The airway is at 5500ft above sea level (amsl) and Lasham is 618ft amsl so you can only go up to about 4800ft. I decided to stop 300′ short – just in case.) In the end my bladder instructed me to descend. Silly, I know, but I wasn’t expecting this.

On days like this you get home and feel really good. For me it is where theory meets the reality of nature.

Wonderful.

Waiting for a winch launch. Hopeful of lift at top of launch.