With 14 names on the two-seater flying list by 08:30 it was always going to be a busy day. Rasp had been forecasting a reasonable day from last Thursday, and the Private owners were also out in force and full of expectation (although some had got stuck on the A38.)
Although as seems to be increasingly common at North Hill, the wind kept blowing from behind us (Ron has a theory about the Somerset levels....)
Eventually the clouds started forming close enough to catch from the aerotow, and winch launches also managed to get away.
The flying list was steadily worked through thanks to Peter Field and Guy Adams the Duty Instructors and ably assisted by John Sillett and Peter Warren who kept going all day. The DLM's Chris Woodward and Rob Rand kept everything running very smoothly, and tugging was shared by Robert Lee, Stu Procter and Simon Leeson.
The pundits task was to The Park, Blandford, but due to the spreadout, the actual routes tended to be a little more flexible making use of some convergences. After several potential field landings were called, the air cycled enough to get everyone home, with cloudbases up to 5000ft at times.
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| Wimbleball Reservoir from OL (Jill Harmer) |
Pete Startup had the longest flight of over 4 hours, and there were 13 aerotows and just short of 50 winch launches - J&P
