After Monday's day of rest for the aircraft, Tuesday started with more promise, a prompt 8:30am start for us Course members - saw the launch point already set up by the our amazing helpers!
The CFI led the team to the hangar and after daily checks Peter Field and Lukasz Kieruczenko were the first to take a winch, Lukasz brought HCX back with a great hold off despite an interesting northerly breeze. The second flight saw him ace a cross - field landing from a simulated launch failure and was rewarded by the first solo flight of the day. I was up next for a check flight with Martin and after a nice climb to 2000ft he tested my G tolerance with an aerobatics demo, a swift deployment of full airbrakes left us low (for me) over the west ridge, a shout from the back seat “are you worried yet” was quickly followed by “you have control, take us back”. After getting KEK back to the field in one piece I was told to sit in the Junior and familiarise myself with the layout, awaiting my first flight.
The CFI led the team to the hangar and after daily checks Peter Field and Lukasz Kieruczenko were the first to take a winch, Lukasz brought HCX back with a great hold off despite an interesting northerly breeze. The second flight saw him ace a cross - field landing from a simulated launch failure and was rewarded by the first solo flight of the day. I was up next for a check flight with Martin and after a nice climb to 2000ft he tested my G tolerance with an aerobatics demo, a swift deployment of full airbrakes left us low (for me) over the west ridge, a shout from the back seat “are you worried yet” was quickly followed by “you have control, take us back”. After getting KEK back to the field in one piece I was told to sit in the Junior and familiarise myself with the layout, awaiting my first flight.
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| Dave familiarises himself with the Junior (Dave Herbert) |
Callum Ayres was up next and after a couple of nice flights, Martin returned to cut me loose on the single seater. The remainder of the morning saw me proving how adept I am at reliably locating 5 knots down, but it provided plenty of opportunity to practice circuits in the Junior. The rest of the Course members made full use of the Instructors and K21s, with much improved weather we broke for lunch at 12:20pm.
The afternoon was looking promising, this was reinforced by the sight of a few private gliders rigged and ready for the off. The K21's were quickly in the air whilst I continued my never ending hunt for sink and managed to improve my record for the shortest flight of the day. There were a lot of smiles at the launch point as the rest of the team were ticking off boxes on their training cards. By 3:20pm I was feeling very confident with my ability to fly exceptionally short circuits and with words of encouragement from Roly and Heather I launched with a renewed determination. My best launch of the day enabled me to find good lift for the first time in the Junior, a swift climb to cloudbase was just the start of the best fun I’ve ever had in a glider. Being a low hours, early solo pilot the first hour was a little challenging with some strong sink between the lift, however that improved greatly as the afternoon progressed, with Martin and Lukasz managing Tiverton with hardly any need to thermal. I completed 2 trips to Cullompton and enjoyed some general hooning, learning more about gliding than I thought possible in one day. With in-flight refreshments running low, I eventually sacrificed 2000ft of climb to get back to North Hill a little after 6pm with a 2 hour and 46 minute flight to my name. Martin was quick to great me with the news that was my first Bronze leg completed.
Back in the Clubhouse, we checked the logs to discover that Lukasz had also completed a 60 minute flight, so the course notches up two Bronze legs in one day.
A fantastic day enjoyed by all, fingers crossed for the rest of the week. - Dave Herbert
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| Improved soaring weather (Lukasz Kieruczenko) |
The afternoon was looking promising, this was reinforced by the sight of a few private gliders rigged and ready for the off. The K21's were quickly in the air whilst I continued my never ending hunt for sink and managed to improve my record for the shortest flight of the day. There were a lot of smiles at the launch point as the rest of the team were ticking off boxes on their training cards. By 3:20pm I was feeling very confident with my ability to fly exceptionally short circuits and with words of encouragement from Roly and Heather I launched with a renewed determination. My best launch of the day enabled me to find good lift for the first time in the Junior, a swift climb to cloudbase was just the start of the best fun I’ve ever had in a glider. Being a low hours, early solo pilot the first hour was a little challenging with some strong sink between the lift, however that improved greatly as the afternoon progressed, with Martin and Lukasz managing Tiverton with hardly any need to thermal. I completed 2 trips to Cullompton and enjoyed some general hooning, learning more about gliding than I thought possible in one day. With in-flight refreshments running low, I eventually sacrificed 2000ft of climb to get back to North Hill a little after 6pm with a 2 hour and 46 minute flight to my name. Martin was quick to great me with the news that was my first Bronze leg completed.
Back in the Clubhouse, we checked the logs to discover that Lukasz had also completed a 60 minute flight, so the course notches up two Bronze legs in one day.
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| M5 Junction 27 (Lukasz Kieruczenko) |
