'A task for everyone and everyone with a task (including the Instructors).....'
Despite
a reasonable weather forecast there were just a few Club members at the
start of the day - all pre-solo apart from the instructors present, so
whilst the K21s and the DG505 were taken out of the hangar and the
launch point set up in the North East corner of the field, with it
looking set to be a day of little soaring Mark C completed a briefing on
circuit planning to provide suitable theory ahead of practicing same.
With
the winch set up and cables pulled out to the launch point it was then
realised that the only winch drivers available were instructors, and
also that it was a similar situation with cable and glider retrieves and
logging too!
Mark C kindly 'volunteered' to go and winch whilst
other instructors took on other ground duties, luckily still leaving a
couple available for go into the back seats of the K21s which provided
the trainees an opportunity to put into practice what they had learnt in
the briefing room.
Mid-morning the K13 was brought on line to
allow more training flights to get underway, whilst the Junior, with no
solo pilots available to fly it, stayed exactly where it had started the
day, just outside the hangar.
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| K13 launches into a grey sky (Mike Sl) |
As the morning continued a trial lesson was completed alongside a variety of circuit planning and eventuality practice flights .
With
the sky not looking very exciting and with Mark C having completed a
long morning's winching (providing some very nice launches) the decision
was made to stop for lunch.
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| Mark winching! (Mark) |
Lunch over the afternoon continued
with similar weather to the morning providing the right sort of
conditions for practicing circuits and with Robert and Steve W kindly
undertaking winching duties whilst other instructors again drove the
cable/glider retrieve vehicles and logged - the afternoon saw the odd
hint of sun and blue skies in amongst the mainly grey clouds during the
afternoon but nothing to get excited about.
 |
| The sky didn't really improve (Mike Sl) |
As the wind increased
in strength and become more southerly towards the end of the afternoon
so the South ridge started to provide some limited help to extending the
circuits.
During the afternoon more trial lessons were completed in amongst the Club flying.
The
Rotax Falke and Super Falke both went off on flights in various
directions during the day with the Rotax Falke also being used in the
afternoon for further circuit planning practice.
Late afternoon
and it was time to put the gliders and ground equipment away for the day
with the instructors having had some evident fun remembering how to do
the various tasks over and above sitting in the back seat of a glider... - Mike Sl
