It was always going to be busy today, with the best forecast for ages and the course members with a lot of catching up to do for the poor weather earlier in the week.
The Clubhouse was jam-packed full by 08:30, and the only delay was the strength of the northerly crosswind and the key decision of which end to go from.
Eventually, we started walking the kit up the field, whilst the private owners were rigging. There was a provisional blue card for the conditions until the assessment could be made, but the wind started abating fairly quickly.
It was soarable from early on, with Pete taking Adam for an out and return to Wellington in KEK, and Woolly and Ellie on the same task in HCX.
Meanwhile, as a reward for helping with the site maintenance (ie driving the dumper truck in the rain) Reuben was treated to a womble with Phil in DD3 Duo Discus taking in Wellington, Ilminster, Axminster and Cadbury Cross for 3 hours.
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| Streety convergence with changing cloudbase (Mark Courtney) |
With the streety convergence staying put most of the day, more local cross-countries were flown to Wellington and back with Pete and Hannah, another with Adam and Woolly and Dave. -maggott racing tomorrow. Unfortunately Lukasz missed out on the task, as it had just got difficult, but made up for it by completing his 50th solo as did Dave.
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| Lukasz Kieruczenko and Dave Herbert 50 solos (Lukasz) |
So it wasn't always straightforward as the cloudbase was only 2000ft to start with, and many struggled to get away. Pete Startup completed Westbury Salisbury for 228kms but hard work over the Somerset Levels.
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| Pete Startup ready to launch (Mark Courtney) |
The Club members list was very long, but thanks to Peter Smith, Mark Courtney, Peter Field, Paul Carpenter and John Sillett - they were able to keep going all day and into the evening with the remaining two-seaters.
The site maintenance work is moving on well, to the painting stage - thanks to all the workers.
In the evening, the course members (and hangers-on), enjoyed a lovely course dinner at the Keepers Cottage. - J&P
