On Wednesday John and I flew over the mountains in a classic Atlas convergence where the Saharan air meets sea air. The first leg over the mountains was around 270kms which we covered at over 170kph, taking only a couple of climbs.Then the conditions started to deteriorate, ahead cloudbase dropped from over 17,000ft to around 13,000ft, with some mountain tops above this height, we diverted south and slowed down taking more climbs. We were trying to cover 1,000kms for the day, but gradually fell behind schedule, with the latest possible landing at 20 30, we gave up the attempt and came home 45mins early, having covered 905 kms. The visibility was then zero forward, with some sight of the ground directly below, thankfull for the gps, we judged our final glide conservatively, but not as conservatively as on my previous flight as we were above 10,000ft and still on oxygen when we were overhead the field.
Bill and I are trying to involve John in our conversations, but without success. I offered to explain Quantum Mechanics, but he responded that he had managed fine without it for 60 years. Bill and I discussed gliding for a change, but the mention of centre of pressure and its change with flap setting seemed to unnerve John and he retired once more to his shell.
The convergence went on and on.
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