Last Thursday, I had high hopes because of the forecasts, but when I woke up, cirrus filled the sky. Nevertheless, I set of early and had my glider rigged in Maillen by 10 AM. Maillen, our towing site, was on the edge of the cirrus field:
Little cumi's this early. Definitely a good sign. Sadly the cirrus drifted our way and covered the sky. Many people needed more than one tow to get a first thermal. Except for Rudy, he started second and immediately climbed to cloud base and was gone. I was already back on the ground at that time and waited for the next tow. A good hour later, I was towed up in smooth air and glided away from the field because there was nothing there. I was awarded with a surprising 3 m/s thermal. I headed for the river (named La Meuse in french) and cruised around there for an hour, meeting up with Rudy and Jean. Thermals where plentiful along the river and it got pretty cold at 1700 m. After an hour of playing around, the cirrus had thickened and the thermals got less powerful and broken up. I decided to head against the wind and away from the river. This resulted in drifting twice in zero lift and having to land soon after. Anyway, it was good to have this flight, because the season has been very poor until now...
While rigging, Tom spotted a pretty large wasp. Or is it something else? We're not used to this size in Belgium...
european hornet
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