The forecast was finally for some sunny weather and we were getting quite excited about the flying prospects. As the day neared, all the forecasts, except RASP were saying sunshine, or ‘sunny intervals’. RASP was giving a significant area of cloud over Wales and our area, but I couldn’t find it replicated in other charts, so ignored it and went with the optimistic forecasts instead. We thought about going to the Peaks, but decided in the end that it would probably be fine here too, so didn’t bother.

I stayed at Ellie’s after the LMSC girls night out and we watched the morning forecast together and were a little surprised to see the BBC forecaster say “It’s a beautiful sunny start to the day in Wales”, when it was grey and completely overcast in Shrewsbury. I drove through a shower on the way home… Everyone at the Met Office is obviously based in London and sadly none of them have any mates in other parts of the country they can phone up and get them to check what’s happening outside their windows. It’s a bit poor when they say it’s one thing and you look at a sat pic and can see that it’s certainly not the case for most of the UK away from the south east.

It never did clear during the day and there was no wind to speak of until much later. People were pulling their gliders up at the Long Mynd, but didn’t start soaring until 3.30pm, which is when we stopped gardening and went up to fly. The sun did come out at about 6pm and it was a nice evening, with some gentle thermals and some ridge soaring. Conditions were better in the Peaks, but as usual, towing in middle England was the most successful. Will listen to RASP in future!

See photos of today.

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