mid day

Rubbish today of course, but tomorrow looking good and for next week.
Salamanca trip today anybody?

The two windy days have given me time to finish the Ad for XCshop.com.
It is a shame Alan did not have one on Wednesday, or he might have taken his 130km to over 200.
Ah well!

High pressure n the Azores and a heat low over Spain and more instability today at high levels with a trough forming right across the centre of Spain which could lead to some storms in some areas.

A cold front will pass through on Saturday which will give us good conditions from Perhaps Sunday evening and Monday.

The local forecast is showing a significant drop in low level winds this evening, so perhaps we will be able to fly at Lastra West take off .  Yesterday the drop of was quite sudden and we arrive late and took off from the S rather than the W launch, so we should go earlier and walk to the W launch.

so, we should leave at 6pm from the house to go to Lastra.

Something to do for today.  A trip to Salamanca perhaps.  Or elsewhere.  Vans are available and also driver if necessary (vans are insured for any driver).  If you want to go to Salamanca, best go early before it gets really hot, also Nigel wanted to go to the art deco museum which closes at 2.

Give me your desires/comments in the shout box below.

friday

1500. Inversion around 3000m, excessive winds.

Here is Mikes last video from last week.  The first day in a set of 5 epic conditions days.  Since then the conditions have ramped up .  
Thanks Mike, wish you could have had the rest of the set of days

Yesterdays light wind and amazing thermals gave us a crop of big flights and some PBs.  With climbs to over 4000m, and a  track away from the Madrid Airspace we had pilots scattered across the North of Castilla.

Conditions at Lastra were paraticulary good with easy take offs and quick and easy to get without the usual turbulence.

Tracklogs

Update.  at 10am the wind still seems 20kmhr+ at take off and has swung more west.  It is difficult to accurately gauge the windspeed with the large windsock, since it is opened with a metal bar at the front and inflates with little wind.  However, it is bouncing around a fair bit.

West at Lastra is ugly.  There is a WSW launch, which is bang into wind, but is a walk of about 1km further up the track.  This might be hard going in the extreme heat we are going to have today.

Since the forecast looks equally or stronger tomorrow I imagine it will be best to check out the site in case the forecast is a long way off.   Since it is now across the PN launch rather than over the back, we could also consider waiting it out at the main site!

Situation

Winds looks much stronger from the south today.  Unfortunately tomorrow even more.  If we fly it will have to be at Lastra, so will once again brief around  10.45-11am..

With an un flyable strong southerly the winds  normally mix down to the valley by around 11am.  It the trees start blowing then then we can perhaps leave the flying attempt until the eventing.

At 8.15 am the wind at take of (the windsock) looks quite strong form the south.  The local spanish forecast has been showing 60kmh at 3000m and 20km /hr at 1800m.  Another big open distance day, but not really a safe one.

We have a speed  problem with internet early this morning so the maps may not be up on this first posting.

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wind at thermal top and track

Conditions of wind and thermal heights at 2pm

It is going to be very hot on the ground today, however, if you get to cloud base, around 3ºC like yesterday.  An inversion at 3800 will give us mainly blue thermals.

The winds is a bit stronger than yesterday and more S.  It is likely that we will go to Lastra, which gives us a good opportunity to do 200km and stay out of airspace,which would be ricky today in the Notam.

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1pm

cross section over time

track and winds

Route outside airspace with SW wind

David´s Radio

if Nigel can help out there is a soldering iron for breaking the capacitor in my cupboard , or the cupboard within the cupboard on top shelf.  should be some watch makers screwdrivers in the drawer near the trackers.

Check a search for Radio Mods, it will be there.

A classic situation with SW and a heat low formed over central Spain.  top temperatures in the 30s .  These are the ideal conditions for formation of the  SW NE convergence (there is an article about this no the website if you are interested) and very large open distance flights without the problem of NE wind at Avila.

Sometimes the problem is that if it is too strong the wind does not come into PN, bu today it is likely, so I hope we do not have to go to Lastra(S take off).Wind at 9am at launch is a light S, so will probably turn and come on.  I will check at 10.30 for final decision.  Today is more W that south , so we should be OK.

Be prepared for a 10.30 move, but I may delay to 11 if I want to stare at the windsock a bit longer if it is not obvious which way things are going.

1pm

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winds at 1800m

cross section over time to Segovia,

What happened

As promised the day was epic, with base to 3900m.  Some, such as Beat finding this at the airspace restriction were able to fly home.  Nelson and myself went beyond Segovia and David well N of Villacastin.  Nigel took a sledge ride from 3800 m to the deck in heavy sink in Avila leaving him somewhat nonplussed.

some of the track near Avila

some of the tracks . Nelson Blue, steve Yellow, David yellowish green far N(downwards on map).

today

The High over the azores still protects us from the low pressure systems, though we do have a bit of a heat low over the peninsular.  Every seems to point towards extremely good flying conditions for today, my only doubt being if the wind will go too north to go beyond Avila to Segovia.  Next few days are also big days.  Historically many of the really big flight have been made between the 10th and 17th of July.  Although the weather has not been cooperating as normal for the last few weeks, it seem it might finally be back to historical norms.  If clouds form they should be above 4000m.

1pm

3pm

cross section over time from PN to Segovia

In the briefing we will cover airspace for this track, also consider airspace more to south just incase we go over the back.  Also some subsidence issues after pass and on other side of gredos.  Also convergence, which we will get in Ambles.

What Happened

Geat conditions, smooth and easy. A but north in Avila some we came back a bit, best by Nigel, Alan and Kieron.

wind more to the west, more unstable, hotter and generally very good for PG distance flights.

Potential climbs to around 3500m, and winds comparatively light.

1pm

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