At the start of the day there were very few members at the Club perhaps a
little surprising in view of the reasonable weather forecast and the
lack of flying yesterday - although the fact that it was Mother's Day
may well have tested the negotiating skills of some members...
Slowly
but surely the number of members present increased and both K21s and a
Junior were taken out of the hangar whilst the winch and launch point
were set up for the North West/South East run.
With the arrival of
a few more members and sufficient people to look after the gliders in
use a decision was made to take a K13 and the other Junior out of the
hangar.
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| Getting the gliders out of the hangar (Mike Sl) |
Meanwhile DSGC Instructor Coaches and visiting instructors from other Clubs
in the South West had started to assemble for a training/discussion
seminar run by Graham Morris and Mike Fox for Flight Instructor Coaches.
As
the morning progressed so did the flying list with some glimpses of
blue sky and potential thermic activity encouraging some private owners
to rig (877 ASW 19, 611 ASW20 and H5 SF27).
Meanwhile during the morning both Falkes were flown up to visit Mendip Gliding Club at Halesland.
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| G-BKVG and G-CDSC at Mendip (James H) |
Around
lunchtime whilst the ridge was not working particularly well, there were
enough lift 'pockets' coming off the end of the West ridge to allow
some long flights for those pilots lucky enough to find the lift and
also able to de-rust their soaring skills - as ever the first climb of a
flight was crucial in determining whether one could stay up and with
some pilots deciding that a "helping hand" from an aerotow made good
sense.
After an enforced stop for lunch due to lack of enough
members to keep flying, the afternoon provided the opportunity both to
complete the flying list and also offer additional flights to those
members who wanted them.
During the afternoon both Falkes went off for some sightseeing along the South coast.
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| The South Coast (Mike Sl) |
With
everyone having flown and/or flying account balances having reduced to
nil there was little interest in continuing to fly - so the gliders were
put away at just after 4pm.
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| North Hill (Mike Sl) |
Total number of flights 52 (46 winch, 6 aerotow) with the best flight of the day completed by James F in his newly acquired ASW19 (877) - 87 mins. - Mike Sl
