After checking the weather websites last night I had high hopes for visiting Big Collin Mountian today. This morning I looked out of my window to check the wind turbine on top of the hill that over looks my house. It wasn't turning, not even a little bit, simply not enough wind to move the thing. I checked the Met office low level wind charts and they were indicating 10 knots at 1000 and 2000 feet. I went outside and managed to make out some cloud features in the stratus clouds that were as far as the eye could see, but these features were not visibly moving. So I resigned my self to staying in and working for the day.
I sent an email to Bertie just to let him know I wasn't hopeful, then got a reply that he was heading out to Big Collin anyway or some exercise if nothing else. So I phoned him and he wasn't sure there would be any usable wind but as he offered me a lift I thought that I may as well go along. My reasoning was that there would definitely be no flying if I stayed at home!
So a short while later we arrived at the hill where there was another instructor and student plus another pilot already there. The wind was light, but I was able to get some flying in. First flight was a forward launch and with a slope landing, next was a reverse launch with a slope landing as was the third flight. I took a break at this point because if the wind came up I didn't want to be too tired and balls up my final top landing that I need to finish my training tasks. This wasn't to be as the wind had moved around to the west and Big Collin really wants a South to South-East wind to be soar-able. So I finished off the day with a top to bottom flight.
Fortunately I got my slope landings signed off. By my calculations I only need one more top landing and I am done. Hopefully get that sorted tomorrow if the weather plays ball.
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