A very good soaring day only spoilt by:
a) Not having a serviceable tug, and
b) North Hill being in a big blue hole - which really didn't start to get soarable until 12:30 - 13:00, although frustratingly we could see the good condidtions about 20km away!
The main Club 500km task(NHL-LAS-YEO-CBN-NHL) really wasn't going to be achievable by the time it got going, so those that went x-country fell back to tasks of around 300kms.
Si Minson and Dave Reilly went to Lasham and back for 328kms, on completion of which Dave had some fun running up and down a sea breeze front which had set up between Tiverton and somewhere down towards Yeovil for another 120km!
Pete in 230 and the CFI, JB, went to Candover Church and back for 309kms, Roly went sight seeing around Salisbury Cathedral. JB and Roly managed to run back to North Hill using a sea breeze front - sadly, it eluded me! James Hood bagged a Silver height and a couple of hours in the Ka6 - well done Jim. They'll be fighting over that Ka6 soon - the queue gets longer, Henry Ford got converted to it and had a couple of flights.
Good news from other parts too - Steve Westlake did a 300 from Lasham. Don't know what his task was but he can tell us all over a beer that he'll be buying - well done Steve. Steve was finishing at Lasham while we were still only half way there - oh how the other half live!
Clive and Trev Russell made valiant Silver distance attempts to the Park. Sadly neither quite made it there, but both now have a succesful field landing under their belts which is always satisfying - better luck next time guys.
Lots of training flying at North Hill including several new members, although a shortage of Instructors meant a bit of waiting around for some of them - let's hope the nice weather and the other activities around the Club have kept them interested enough to return.
Here's to more days like this.
