After the clear blue
skies of the last few days Saturday dawned rather grey; typical it’s
always nicer when you’re at work! But on the bright side the
temperature was a little, just a little warmer and the wind was a light
west north westerly. The hanger was soon unpacked and the ground
equipment made ready.
By the time we were ready to fly we had an
impressive 5 gliders on the flight line; DG505, K21, K13, Junior and K6.
Martin Woolner as Duty Instructor then took on the challenge of working
out who was doing what in what glider. After a little discussion a
cunning plan was soon put into place and flying began.
Martin started
with Josh Funnell in the K13. Josh was keen to solo this so that he could
covert into the junior member's K6. Our CFI Stu Procter took the DG505
with one of our new Junior members Jack Raybould and James Flory took the K21 with David
Buss.
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| Mollie helps out as Duty Launch Marshall (Lisa Humphries) |
The cloud base was initially low around 1100 feet due to the
orographic effect of the ridge, but soon lifted to around 2000 feet and
then higher as the day progressed. It’s fair to say there was little
opportunity for soaring flight, but the conditions made the flying silky
smooth and provided the ideal conditions for type conversion.
Josh was
soon solo in the K13 executing some very nice landings, before moving
across to solo in the K6. Meanwhile Ellie Carter was driving the winch
and providing some equally silky smooth launches. Simon Leeson flew the
only trial lesson flight of the day with James Hood providing the motive
power in the tug.
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| Junior members kept the K6 busy (Neil Carter) |
Flying continued through the day without a lunch
break with (amongst others) Ross Pratt adding some more solos in K21, Dave Woodward and Allan Turner flying the
Junior and Josh, Charlie Stuckey, Oscar Leeson and Ellie flying the K6 under the
watchful eye of Pete Harmer. Reuben Buss finished his currency flying
with Martin in the K13 and soon re-joined the the K6 flying gang; a
popular aircraft - the K6, it's great to see our junior members being able
to enjoy flying it.
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| Late afternoon aerotow James and Lisa (James Flory) |
As the day began to draw in James Flory and Lisa
Humphries had a pleasant aerotow in the DG505, followed by Mike Willmott
with Rowan Smith, the afternoon duty instructor having the last aerotow
in the K21. Karen King and Rowan then had the last winch launch in the K21
around 16:00.
Overall a really good day with all members flying.
Congratulations to Josh for soloing in the K6 and to Reuben for
re-soloing in it. Just goes to show winter days may not offer long
flights, but they do offer a great opportunity to try something new and
to stay current. 38 flights in total (10 in K6 DRE) - James Flory
Day 8 - O/R to Poland
With the
weather looking reasonable if not spectacular, John and I helped the
local members get various gliders out of the LGC hangar in optimism of
some gliding taking place.
The
forecast suggested that low cloud might be an issue but as the launch
point was set up for winch launching the skies got lighter and lighter
with soon a high enough cloud base for aerotows to also be planned.
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| John Borland adds Dunstable to his site list (Mike Sloggett) |
John
was first on the flying list and after a briefing on various aspects of
the site and local area John was soon being winched airborne with an
LGC instructor.
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| Time to head home (Mike Sloggett) |
After
being shown the 'Lion enclosure', fortunately from the air, it was soon
time for John to get back into circuit and have the fun of landing into
the Dunstable dip which he did perfectly. And then we decided it was time to head home to the South West. - Mike Sloggett
And a big thank you from DSGC to Mike, John and Vicky for their epic road trip - which we have all enjoyed hearing about.
