'Whether to be optimistic or not, would patience be rewarded....?'
In the early hours of the morning, with the rain beating on the windows of their respective houses in Saltash, James and Mike S were soon exchanging messages questioning the wiseness of the planned trip to North Hill.
As both were on the Instructor rota for the morning and afternoon respectively and with Paul S having looked at the weather seaweed, retaining an optimistic outlook that it might be flyable during the afternoon - the decision was made to meet up and go to North Hill (albeit at a slightly more leisurely pace than would be the case were a day of good weather being forecast).
As we drove up the hill, (and against the tide) to the Club it was clear that a lot of rain had been / was still falling, and already a decision to leave for home early was already being mooted.
At the Club, Wyn as Duty Launch Marshal, was pleased to see that he was not the only member to have braved the weather.
The morning was taken up with discussion of Christmas festivities, taking down the decorations in the Clubhouse, orders for breakfast / brunch and regular reviews of weather forecasts, particularly rain radar pictures.
It was good to see Max, as a former Junior member, and Emily visit the Club in the hope of some flying.
Around lunchtime and with some optimism that the weather might just improve enough for some flying to take place, assuming the field had drained enough, those present decided to hang on 'as you never know' and with the numbers swelled by Phil G, the afternoon Duty Launch Marshal, having turned up 'just in case'.
Meanwhile JB had also arrived but was confined to the workshop to continue polishing KEK.
Just after lunch the weather had turned from grey skies to mainly blue skies - with enough interest in some flying and after a field inspection by Mike S and James H it was decided that with some careful planning around which area of the field to use we could feasibly start aerotowing. A visit to the workshop found M5Matt, to whom we profusely apologised for taking him away from helping JB with the glider polishing so that we could aerotow.
With the field draining well, a K21 was taken out of the hanger and the launching / landing areas determined.
A
couple of hours later and 7 aerotows had been completed with everyone
who wanted to fly having seized the opportunity to do so.
The
K21 and Pawnee were both thoroughly cleaned and the hangar doors closed
on what had been a good example of how optimism and patience can
(sometimes) be rewarded.
Thank you to Matt and Stu, who had also turned up 'just in case', for the aerotows, and to JB who despite the fun outside stuck to the dreary task of hard waxing KEK- Mike Sl
In the early hours of the morning, with the rain beating on the windows of their respective houses in Saltash, James and Mike S were soon exchanging messages questioning the wiseness of the planned trip to North Hill.
As both were on the Instructor rota for the morning and afternoon respectively and with Paul S having looked at the weather seaweed, retaining an optimistic outlook that it might be flyable during the afternoon - the decision was made to meet up and go to North Hill (albeit at a slightly more leisurely pace than would be the case were a day of good weather being forecast).
As we drove up the hill, (and against the tide) to the Club it was clear that a lot of rain had been / was still falling, and already a decision to leave for home early was already being mooted.
At the Club, Wyn as Duty Launch Marshal, was pleased to see that he was not the only member to have braved the weather.
The morning was taken up with discussion of Christmas festivities, taking down the decorations in the Clubhouse, orders for breakfast / brunch and regular reviews of weather forecasts, particularly rain radar pictures.
It was good to see Max, as a former Junior member, and Emily visit the Club in the hope of some flying.
Around lunchtime and with some optimism that the weather might just improve enough for some flying to take place, assuming the field had drained enough, those present decided to hang on 'as you never know' and with the numbers swelled by Phil G, the afternoon Duty Launch Marshal, having turned up 'just in case'.
Meanwhile JB had also arrived but was confined to the workshop to continue polishing KEK.
Just after lunch the weather had turned from grey skies to mainly blue skies - with enough interest in some flying and after a field inspection by Mike S and James H it was decided that with some careful planning around which area of the field to use we could feasibly start aerotowing. A visit to the workshop found M5Matt, to whom we profusely apologised for taking him away from helping JB with the glider polishing so that we could aerotow.
 |
| Aerotows under partly blue skies (Mike Sl) |
 |
| ...and landings (Mike Sl) |
 |
| Sun in evidence (Mike Sl) |
Thank you to Matt and Stu, who had also turned up 'just in case', for the aerotows, and to JB who despite the fun outside stuck to the dreary task of hard waxing KEK- Mike Sl
 |
| Sunset Aerotow (M5Matt) |
