"Perseverance pays off" (or) "If at first you don't succeed..."
Whether it was the previous day's good weather and flying, or it being the morning after the Burns Night the evening before, or the average weather forecast for the day few members were at the Club for the start of the day.
Whether it was the previous day's good weather and flying, or it being the morning after the Burns Night the evening before, or the average weather forecast for the day few members were at the Club for the start of the day.
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| DIs in progress (Mike Sl) |
Slowly but surely members arrived and soon there were just
enough people to start getting the gliders out with the launch point set
up in the North East corner of the field - with the K21s, a Junior and a
K13 sufficient for the members present.
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| Skylaunch - ready (Marie) |
With the Skylaunch winch
in position and suitably warmed up the first launch of the day was
readied with a K21 and then...nothing. It soon became clear that the
Skylaunch did not want to start again.
Despite many hands and brains working on pressing buttons and flicking switches it was all to no avail so Plan B was soon underway - put the Skylaunch away for suitable further research on the problem and set up the SupaCat winch.
Despite many hands and brains working on pressing buttons and flicking switches it was all to no avail so Plan B was soon underway - put the Skylaunch away for suitable further research on the problem and set up the SupaCat winch.
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| SupaCat to the rescue (Adrian) |
With
both ropes out on the Skylaunch it was then a question of winding both
in by hand, and then working out how many people could remember how to
drive the SupaCat.
Meanwhile Mark C and Simon L used the Rotax Falke to start on Simon's 5 year refresher checks whilst Guy continued to build his hours in the Falke VG with a tour of the South Coast and the Somerset levels.
Meanwhile Mark C and Simon L used the Rotax Falke to start on Simon's 5 year refresher checks whilst Guy continued to build his hours in the Falke VG with a tour of the South Coast and the Somerset levels.
By now it was midday so an early lunch was called with a plan of flying soon after everyone had been 'fed and watered'.
With a first flight of the day shortly after 1:00pm, it was then an afternoon of good teamwork to make sure that everyone who wanted to fly could do so - with focus on retrieving gliders and cables to ensure a safe, but quick, turnaround, evident.
Mark C flew in the K13 with Simon L to complete Simon's checks.
And by late afternoon, just as the cloudbase had lowered with light rain starting, all the members remaining at lunchtime had flown.
Whilst an unspectacular afternoon's flying under grey skies, at the end of a day that turned out much better than seemed likely late morning, all agreed that perseverance had paid off..
Flying statistics for the afternoon -
20 flights -5 solo 15 dual (1 hour 47 minutes) - Mike Sl
