Friday 13 October 2023
The expedition at Aboyne had a good day today. It was an early start due to the good forecast, but the team had to wait for a shower to go through. With a strong westerly wind, Paul Field and Laurence Weeks flew in the Duo Discus (26) for 5 hours and, due to the installed transponder, managed to negotiate a climb to FL250 (24,500 feet Above Mean Sea Level) with Scottish Radar! At altitude, 26 telemetry showed a groundspeed of negative 4.2 knots, the wind being 250 degrees at 70 knots and the temperature minus 32.7 degrees Celsius. The pair were still going up, but Scottish Radar could not give a higher climb.
Humza Hamid also flew in his Ventus 2cxT (TC) and managed to get to FL240 - he did not have a transponder installed and so had to stop ascending once he reached the base of controlled airspace. Some great pictures were taken - see below.
The conditions were quite rough, with the wind at 2,000 ft being 48 knots, and so we packed up in the afternoon when it became too rough to tow.
