I’ve been in a syndicate with John Birch in a Duo Discus Turbo since 2002. Over the years we have had many wonderful shared flights. We hadn’t flown together in the last 4 to 5 years, a combination of Covid and John’s increasing age. On the 23rd June the forecast looked very good in East Anglia, and I reckoned a scenic flight was possible going from Gransden Lodge to turning points at Great Yarmouth and Felixstowe. This would be a 300km triangle with a middle leg of over 70km going down the east coast potentially with lovely sea views. I called John and he said yes without any hesitation.
Normally the soaring conditions are worse near the sea, as cold air gets sucked or blown onto the land killing the thermals. On this day the wind was south westerly about 7 to 10 knots, enough to stop or limit the inflow of sea air. I was hoping that a sea breeze front or convergence would form where the cold sea air gets sucked in by the rising air heated on the land, forming a line of lift just inland from the coast. We were lucky and there were some signs of a convergence allowing us to stay close to the coast.
The photos show Great Yarmouth, Lowestoft, the coast near Sizewell, Felixstowe docks and finally the Orwell bridge at Ipswich on the way back.
Having had a grand day out at the sea side we treated ourselves to ice creams when we landed back at the club 🙂
Richard Maskell.
