|
The weather was initially calm but very hazy. We
were airborne at 10:35 and the visibility was very limited so took care with
the navigation and adjusted the track to coincide with good landmarks.
Routed South of Popham, Alton and Farnham, then East along the South side
of the Hogs Back. In the area to the South of Guildford the visibility was
improving so continued heading East, using the North Downs Ridge and the
railway line from Shalford to the Redhill area as navigation aids.
Shifted slightly North around Redhill, now using the
M25 which we followed to Sevenoaks. Took a few photos of a building on the
North side of Sevenoaks and then tracked South East to pick up the Ashford
railway. Then East along the line to Lashenden for a straight in landing on
runway 11 at 11:45.
Had a good bacon roll and coffee while watching the
parachuting. Had a walk around and looked at the resident aircraft.
We were back in the aeroplane at 13:00 for a
departure off runway 11 with a left hand circuit to the North of Headcorn
Town. We routed West along the line until the Redhill area which we flew
around to the North. Clear of Redhill we flew West just on the South side of
the North Downs and then along the Hogs Back. Routing South of Farnham one
unusually strong thermal rolled the aeroplane quite violently and we
definitely hovered above the seats for a period.
After South around Alton we routed towards Popham
keeping a good look out for the Lasham traffic who were probably enjoying
the very robust thermals. At Popham we landed on 21 and Martin admitted to
making the usual mistake of landing at the start of the runway instead off
further up the hill where the cross slope is much less.
After taking on fuel we struggled to outclimb the
slope of the 21 departure and then continued on track until back at base. |
