It is that time of year again, when the seabreeze at the coast is unreliable and many new pilots are looking for a new place to fly.
I have fielded a lot of emails from new pilots asking about the weather this weekend or another time. The BMHGC uses a private message group for discussing flying, which is available to current BMHGC members. For all the visiting pilots and new pilots asking about club activities and weather forecasts I will be posting a weekly update here for the next few weeks, with a consensus from the club members, safety officers etc... So come back and have a look here before firing off an email. Don’t forget the weather forecast resources here. You will get a much friendlier response if you put in the effort to check the forecast before you send a message or ring someone local.
For this weekend, I will give my opinion to start with and make another post if there any different opinions. Please note this is just a prediction, so don't blame me if you drive up and find it is raining or decide to stay home and miss out. For the Mt Blackheath site, unless you have aPG5/HG5 rating, you need the OK from a BMHGC SO or SSO, on the day, on the ground, before you fly.
Saturday: The wind is from the North most of the day and light high cloud is forecast. You may have a flight if you are a topgun, but it wont be much fun. Takeoff will be impossible from Blackheath and there wont be any ridge soaring potential. At least it wont be raining so you can go for a bushwalk.
Sunday: Clear morning but raining in the afternoon. As soon as the sun comes out the wind will mix down and it will be blown out. Dangerous if you are tempted for a dawn/early morning flight.
Monday: At this stage the longer range forecast says dont get excited it will be raining. Come back and have a look for a chance over the long weekend if we are lucky.
Next forecast will be on the Thursday before the long weekend.
Thanks for your cooperation,
Alex Drew.
