Yes it was Ron's birthday today and to celebrate he treated Paul Kane to 4 and a half hours of 1 to 1 cross country gliding instruction or more accurately a damn long moan about the lack of any working equipment in our DG505. Despite this it was still a very good day, in fact it might even be a record x-country day for North Hill pilots.
7 gliders completed the 307km trip to Candover church and back Paul and Ron in JZK, Simon Minson in SM, Phil Morrison in 611, John Pursey in HOG, Rowan Smith in CLM, Pete Startup in 230 and Matt Wright in M5. Pete Bennett in the trusty K6 HEB succumbed to peer pressure and set off on the same task instead of his planned club 100 and after a backside numbing 5 hours, landed in a field near Shaftesbury having covered an impressive 226km.
This added another couple of hundred miles to Fiona and Martin's already hectic schedule for the day and that was before they found that they also needed to perform a little trailer TLC before they could set off to retrieve him.
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| Busy day at North Hill - and a great sky (Will Stainer) |
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| Pete Bennett and the K6 in a nice field (Fiona Bennett) |
The turbo boys Eric Alston in G29 and Pete Smith in 1UP were a little late to get going and so were playing catch up to the rest of the gaggle. Eric ended up turning Salisbury Cathedral before heading home via Dulverton and Pete ended up in a field near his home in Crewkerne though sheer determination not to give up and use his engine.
Mike Sloggett, who finally had ENW to himself for the day mainly because James was recovering from yet another late night and Mark was earning brownie points after a week away at the Mynd, decided to have a bash at the club 100 and romped around the task with Martin Woolner in KMV hot on his heals. Wyn Davies in W7 spent his time whizzing up and down between Exmoor and Dorchester and covering 333km in the bargain and enjoying the brilliant views, sea breeze and high cloud base. James Flory also had his syndicate glider 877 all to himself and he made the most of the opportunity by completing nearly 6 hours in the air and bagging his silver/gold duration badge. unfortunately his electronics were misbehaving so he aborted his attempt at a silver distance at Crewkerne before returning to NHL.
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| Eric turned Salisbury (Eric Alston) |
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| For once the epic conditions connect to NHL (Tim Peake) |
Finally on the XC front the mighty Eagle BBB, piloted by JB and a friend of Nick Jones's went to Yeovil Reservoir and back without the usual pit stop in a farmers field. There were even wild unsubstantiated reports that John Street was seen flying FZF out over Tiverton, we await the logger evidence to corroborate these heinous accusations. M5Matt
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| A Proper Grid |
In the afternoon there was a Junior sitting doing nothing so I took a quick launch after a bit of messing about at 900ft I managed to get into a decent thermal and climbed to 5,000ft above site I bumped into Matt over Tiverton on his way somewhere I think he had already completed a quick 300k. Most people had good soaring flights we finished flying about 5.30pm and it was still soarable.
Robert worked hard as tuggie with a bit of help from Mitch in the Rotax falke. There were a hang of a lot of smiling, slightly sunburnt faces at the end of the day! - John Street
Robert worked hard as tuggie with a bit of help from Mitch in the Rotax falke. There were a hang of a lot of smiling, slightly sunburnt faces at the end of the day! - John Street
