A summary of the Kerry Safari, written by Peter Denman
We are midway through week two of what is a rather different Kerry fortnight. Because of the pandemic precautions in force, a number of the usual suspects and potential first-timers either couldn’t, or decided not to, take part, so we are at most a dozen here this year.
But what about the flying? Just three days in the air so far. The first Monday we had excellent flying at Fermoyle in a westerly. All five gliders here flew – the K18, the three K6s (two of the CR variety and one E) and the club ASK13, – and there was some enjoyable climbing to be done along the ridges before wave was contacted. With 6000 feet or more under the wings the wave allowed some of us to push forward west of Masatiompan and Brandon, both comprehensively wrapped in cloud.
The next day we flew from Inch, again with all five gliders in the air (by the way, the club K8 was not brought on safari this year) and wave climbs were again on offer. This was a day that resulted in the traditional rushed “de-rig-and-get-off-the-beach”: the wind strengthening, the tide seeming to arrive ahead of its time, and not many of us there to handle the gliders.
Since then, we have had just one day’s flying, with circuits on Fermoyle – but that too was a good day, as a DGC member got cleared for solo on car launching. On a more usual safari, there would have been a couple more days of flying activity in calm conditions had there been others to checkout on car launches.
Hopefully the weather over the next three to four days will be kind and provide some memorable soaring flights before this safari draws to an end.
