| 8 July 2007 - Bembridge |
| We had hoped to go to the
Devon Strut Flyin at Farway Common, but a look at their website the night
before had informed us it was cancelled due to a soggy airfield |
| Headcorn was our second
choice but looking at the NOTAMS we discovered we would have to run the
gauntlet of the Tour de France to get there. Since the day promised
a reasonable amount of sunshine and a light wind we thought a walk on the
Isle of Wight would be pleasant, so decided Bembridge's hard runway might
be best. |
| We were airbourne shortly
after 10:00 and gave Popham a fairly wide berth since they they had many
incoming planes for the second day of their flyin. |
| The visibility was fantastic
and later when crossing the Solent we had great views of the yachts,
Portsmouth and the coast line. |
|
|
| Bembridge were using runway
12 with a left hand circuit and they had just started their gliding
activities. |
|
|
| Having chocked the plane,
paid the landing fee we headed for the National Trust windmill and through
the village of Bembridge before lunching at our favourite cafe overlooking
the harbour. |
| It was lovely watching the
gliders taking advantage of the thermals and it was just the sort of day
when a cross country flight in a glider to the mainland and back would
have been possible. |
| We could not take on fuel as
Bembridge had run out due to the numbers of visiting aircraft the previous
day. We headed home using a fairly direct route. |
|
|
| We passed Popham again there
were lots of movements and Chris was doing well keeping very calm control
of the activities on the radio. |
| Lasham glider pilots were
taking advantage of the extraordinary weather. We took care to keep
a good look out. |
| Our friend who glides from
Odiham caught a thermal at 650 feet that took him to 4650 feet, sadly he
was called down after one hour. |
|
|
| AY had been left uncovered
since the annual and become rather dusty we decided to give her a thorough
clean, before putting on her freshly washed covers and leaving her for
hopefully only a week!! |
