Saturday 14th February

Although the weather predictions for today seemed to have employed the 'random bad weather generator' algorithm over the last two days, a surprisingly large bunch of members were to be found in the clubhouse this morning.  Unfortunately the weather was indeed poor as (sort of) predicted. This meant Graham and Cheryl, looking rather tanned after their recent excursion, were kept busy providing sustenance.

While we all hung around drinking tea, waiting for an improvement in the weather, a few people kept themselves gainfully occupied. Nick was busy showing off his new tattoo of the DG505. Roly was busy pretending he didn't care that he'd not thought up that idea first. Pete Sm was busy showing off and installing his ingenious new sliding door locking mechanism for the M/T Hangar. There appeared to be only two sliding door lock enthusiasts, but they were suitably impressed, and used words like 'elegant' to describe his method.  Note to members: please don't break them! Paul S and James H were busy looking lovingly into each others eyes and buying cake with hearts on as Valentines gifts for each other, before posting pictures on Facebook. 
 
Lovey cake (Cheryl)

- Very sweet. Henry was busy ... hold on ... we haven't got to lunch and Henry was here? Strange but true. Henry was busy repairing batteries and also running a kind of walk in IT service to anyone that needed it. JP was busy launching in a K13 to find out exactly how high cloud base was. Or should that be how low cloud base was? Low was the answer. Confronted by a wall of cloud he retreated.  Pete St was busy commentating on Matt's latest videos from Parham and Nympsfield.

Anyway, back to actual gliding. After lunch, cloud base had lifted and gaps had appeared, so flying began at 2:15pm from the south west corner. Amazingly most people were still around after 'toughing out' the morning in the clubhouse.  Maybe the wise words "you won't fly if you're not there" are being noted! JP and Ian M were on instructing duties. Conditions weren't great, but there were some hints of thermals in places. Georgina experienced her first flight in a glider with JP.  Neil E returned to continue his learning after not flying since July. Roly and Henry both took advantage of the return of the Pawnee to take aerotows. Henry was optimistic of finding wave after some seeing some vaguely promising signs but returned disappointed.
Henry tows above cloud looking for wave (Henry)

Nick refreshed himself on how 'the bubble' worked, probably so he can hang his 'inked' arm out of the window (lorry driver style) once the weather improves. Despite the short day, everyone that wanted to fly, flew.  

Love you North Hill. - Tim P