The day dawned with promising blue skies, the first in quite a few weeks. Unsurprisingly there were a lot of people who wanted to fly with the list reaching to nearly the end of the page by mid morning. However there was a draw back. To quote a certain honey loving bear it was a very windy day.
Nevertheless the field was quickly set up and the two K21’s and an optimistic Junior were towed to the SW corner of the field. By this time our valiant Duty Instructor John Pursey had assessed the conditions as blue card with the threat of curl-over off the west end of the field, although at least the wind was pretty much straight down the field.
John then took the first launch with Dick Stevens. They went up well but came down nearly as quickly; it wasn’t so much gliding as falling with considerable style! If there was any wave out there, it was out of our reach. As the day progressed the flights got slightly longer with tantalising hints of wave or very broken thermals.
Most people managed to fly and to get the chance to experience the conditions under the watchful eye of our instructors John, Steve Westlake and JB. James Flory continued his Ass Cat training with Martin Woolner and Paul Carpenter was able to do his Blue Card checks with Mark Courtney. By mid- afternoon Martin took the Junior up and managed the longest flight of around 20 mins.
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| Just a touch windy, waiting for the winch gurus (James Flory) |
To add to the excitement there were a couple of cable failures and the winch had a funny turn in the early afternoon and needed a new control unit which was quickly fitted by our usual winch gurus who would have put an F1 pit crew to shame; thanks gents! By about 15:30 conditions were getting gusty and as most members were now beginning to feel the effects of being wind blasted for the last 6 hours the kit was returned back to the hangers.
Overall a safe and very educational days gliding with most people being able to get a flight to experience the conditions. Sadly not as good as the Talgarth conditions, but there’s always next weekend! - James Flory
