With the very pessimistic forecast of rain rain rain it was not surprising that there were few members today.
With James Hood, Paul Summers, and myself unable to arrive early due to James’s new van having an oil change and massage it was left to CFI Stu and James Flory to get the “few” organised. Thanks lads!
With a fairly light SW wind we set up against the fence on the North side of the field. The sky did not look promising from the start, but despite this, training started with Ross Pratt and myself having the first launch.
The South ridge did offer some lift in the small bowl near Stuart’s house, this was worked carefully by several pilots who decided that after driving up it was worth “having a go”.
It did start to rain at about 10:30 and I admit we thought it was going to be a very short day. However the small shower quickly passed and the South ridge continued to provide extended circuits.
Ross and I extended the beat all the way along the South ridge “because there is always lift right at the end” unfortunately there wasn’t any, in fact Mr Sink came to visit us, a quick turn to the right, over the top of Francis who we could see as usual was fast asleep near the windsock, and a landing into wind. I don’t think we woke him - - - -maybe.
With James Hood, Paul Summers, and myself unable to arrive early due to James’s new van having an oil change and massage it was left to CFI Stu and James Flory to get the “few” organised. Thanks lads!
With a fairly light SW wind we set up against the fence on the North side of the field. The sky did not look promising from the start, but despite this, training started with Ross Pratt and myself having the first launch.
The South ridge did offer some lift in the small bowl near Stuart’s house, this was worked carefully by several pilots who decided that after driving up it was worth “having a go”.
It did start to rain at about 10:30 and I admit we thought it was going to be a very short day. However the small shower quickly passed and the South ridge continued to provide extended circuits.
Ross and I extended the beat all the way along the South ridge “because there is always lift right at the end” unfortunately there wasn’t any, in fact Mr Sink came to visit us, a quick turn to the right, over the top of Francis who we could see as usual was fast asleep near the windsock, and a landing into wind. I don’t think we woke him - - - -maybe.
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| James Hood and Dave Weeks preparing for the grey sky (Mark Courtney) |
Rowan arrived full of the joys of spring ready to take over as PM instructor. He was so keen to experience the grey sky we could barely restrain him, leaping in the back of the K21 like a man possessed.
He did have the last laugh though, taking Ross (who has a slight appetite for gliding) for his, by now fourth flight and managed to have the longest flight of the day at 38 min, with the added bonus of not waking the incredible sleeping man at the far end of the field.
We welcomed our “winter” member Richard Roberts (a summer xcountry pilot at Brentor) Richard had a quick flight in the K21 with me before rain did actually stop play. The gliders were put away just as heavy drizzle descended at about 3 pm. Don’t you just hate the word drizzle?
He did have the last laugh though, taking Ross (who has a slight appetite for gliding) for his, by now fourth flight and managed to have the longest flight of the day at 38 min, with the added bonus of not waking the incredible sleeping man at the far end of the field.
We welcomed our “winter” member Richard Roberts (a summer xcountry pilot at Brentor) Richard had a quick flight in the K21 with me before rain did actually stop play. The gliders were put away just as heavy drizzle descended at about 3 pm. Don’t you just hate the word drizzle?
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| After flying several distinguished members sat outside and discussed very important things (Mark Courtney) |
All in all a surprisingly enjoyable day. Ross learnt a lot I feel, in particular “how to wake a sleeping man”.So as we say a farewell to summer and roll into Autumn, I couldn’t help notice that the leaves are a little bit browner but the weather is very similar. Hoping for some nice wave soon ! - Mark Courtney
