Saturday 7th May

An average number of members arrived at North Hill bright'n'early this morning in anticipation of . . . well . . averageness to be honest.  The forecast predicted nothing more than some sunshine.  Unfortunately forecasts change, and a morning of rain had entered the picture by 8:00am.  This was forecast to last until 11:00am.  Rain radar images backed this up, so a few hours were invested in breakfast eating, tea drinking and a lecture by Phil Morrison on how wings work.  The lecture was unprepared, but was fully-furnished with formulas and graphs and everything - good stuff.

The 11am prediction was correct, so the trek to the west end of the field began.  Fashion fans will be interested to hear that now spring has sprung, Game of Thrones style tops (circa Jan 2016) have been abandoned in favour of flip flops, as sported by trend setter JP.  Conditions were indeed average.  Winch launched flights didn't last longer than 8 minutes.  Paul Summers gave Trial lesson visitors Sarah and Nick their first experience of silent flight from 2000ft aerotows, but even they struggled to hit 15 minutes.  Lisa Humphries flew K13 CCY with a prospective purchaser.  

Winch launches were short (Ellie Carter)

JB arrived to augment the one-man instructing team of JP.  The 'J's continued work on the flying list, which although not long, began to look like a difficult task in light of the late start.  Wendy Willis-Fleming had stepped into role of Duty Launch Marshall for the whole day and the small team worked seamlessly together to keep things moving.  Roly Clarke arrived in time to give Paul a lunch break and fly Michelle, the final trial lesson visitor.  For those who listened carefully, the dulcet tones of Roly recounting tales of some incredible distance flown, (200km was it?) could be heard emanating from the LPV . . soothing stuff.

As the sun made an appearance around lunchtime, conditions became much more boistorous, so the blue card was hoisted.  Approaches looked exciting and some students thought they may have heard the usually unflappable JP make uncomfortable noises in the back seat.   

Unflappable J's in the back seat (Ellie Carter)

Flying continued until 6:30pm by which time the conditions had calmed down somewhat.  Everyone got to fly at least once thanks to the 'dog licked rock bun' (ask Lisa) fuelled enthusiasm of the 'J' combo and Roy Boddy agreeing to do overtime in the winch (thank you Sir).  Despite JPs egging-on of JB to visit the east side Hembury Hill on the final flight, JB decided (probably wisely considering JPs reluctance to do the job himself) not to, and instead have a bimble over Broadhembury in 'the best air all day'. Still didn't break 8 minutes though!

Average conditions maybe, but still a great day out! - Tim Peters