A word to the weather wise...

At this time of year in particular the weather is very volatile. Pilots are reminded that they need to maintain a watch both upwind and downwind for any approaching changes to the weather.

Approaching weather fronts or rain cells are often accompanied by the sudden arrival of strong winds, the gust front. It is better to familiarise yourselves with this phenomenon while safely sat on your glider on the ground and not while aloft.

Having the rain alarm app on your phone can really help with keeping track of approaching rain.



Keep a careful watch for the arrival of the sea breeze, which may be identified by the characteristic curtain cloud, but may only be evidenced by a lessening of cumulus cloud. Watching the surface of any water upwind will often be a very good indicator.

Sometimes the sea breeze will give you a lovely gentle ride to cloud base, but more often it will be turbulent, sometimes extremely so. Many, many pilots have had serious accidents when the sea breeze arrived.