caught in changing weather

The weather all day seemed reasonable and I had a good look at it from 4.30 till I finished work at 5.30, I was intending doing a cross country trip to visit Lance, before I launched there was lots of smallish clouds in the distance upwind, my route was downwind, all seemed fine, so away I went, I was flying at around 38mph and put in a few turns to look at a microlight take off from a field, the sky had changed considerably, the wee clouds all seemed to suck together and form one big dirty black mother f*cker, decision time- if I carried on I would not be able to fly home and would have to bother someone to collect me, so I opted to return to the field and call it a day, the cloud seemed to grow and got really black


The cloudbase seemed to be dropping very fast and I could almost see the cloud growing as I was trying to dodge my way around it


I managed to get back to the field but the conditions were not like anything I've ever flown in before, sinking with trimmers in full on full power- wind seemed to be changing direction moving right around to complete opposite direction... when I landed I took a few snaps before I moved





I waited for 30 mins and the sky was clear again, got the gear back out and had a lovely flight no dramas, unreal how the weather changed so quickly....
Some more pics here of the flights and the Finn Valley flooded with all the rain, theres one of a flooded area - if you look closely you will see the arches of the bridge-Castlefin bridge.


http://picasaweb.google.com/Donegalwing ... directlink



Dean

[Gordon Dunn]

Amazing weather Dean.... was looking out tonight too but didn't venture out- not just because of the atmospheric conditions, but the ground is just too wet here. The rivers are almost bursting here, and the fields are so muddy- you'd swear it was November! long wet grass dosent make for a good launch.....

GD

PS- looking at the last photo above- you'd nearly need your floatation device fitted incase of engine out!!!

Scary clouds there Dean, but you had the foresight to make the correct decision to land to wait it out!! I have a full PPG course booked with paul mahony in portugal for leter this year, all booked and ready to go, so lets hope i can join you guys in the air eventually! and you can share with me your great knowledge of the weather!

Good man Pat....great to hear you're taking the plunge- maybe you will be able to give me a few pointers on the weather after your course

Gordon
Hope youre not worried about getting that oul Fusion dirty now...
Dean