Course Week
We started the day in the same way as the rest of the week. A cup of tea and a chat while the Instructors decided on the layout of the field. We had the added benefit of blue skies and the promise of good gliding weather, however, crosswinds proved to be quite challenging and we got no further experience in taking control on the climb. However, once in the air we all found some lift and got lots of experience on the stick and with thermalling.
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| Early morning sky (Mark Courtney) |
The day also brought with it a new instructor as James Flory was unable to reschedule this day from the original course and Peter Smith was our course instructor for the day.
I was fortunate enough to find a lot of lift and managed to stay up for an hour and a quarter concentrating on thermalling. It is quite tiring and as we still had quite a bit of height left Peter decided to keep me alert by doing some stalling practice, an introduction to spinning and some spiralling turns. All very exciting.
I was fortunate enough to find a lot of lift and managed to stay up for an hour and a quarter concentrating on thermalling. It is quite tiring and as we still had quite a bit of height left Peter decided to keep me alert by doing some stalling practice, an introduction to spinning and some spiralling turns. All very exciting.
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| Clouds in the distance (Peter Smith) |
Such is the supportive nature at the club that if an Instructor and a glider are free they will offer to take us course members up in the air. Consequently with the Club flying list sorted, Sue got to go up in the DG505 with Woolly, which she described as quite an experience!
We finished the day with the course meal at the Keepers' Cottage which James kindly organised. It was a good opportunity to find out a bit more about our Course Members and the Course Instructors and an enjoyable time was had listening to anecdotes around the table. - Jim Binning
We finished the day with the course meal at the Keepers' Cottage which James kindly organised. It was a good opportunity to find out a bit more about our Course Members and the Course Instructors and an enjoyable time was had listening to anecdotes around the table. - Jim Binning
Club Flying
The gusty crosswind from the north restricted some of the early solo pilots to flying the two-seaters, but the rapidly cycling sky meant that some had good soaring flights and others short circuits.
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| Pete Harmer and George Sanderson in Perkoz (Jill Harmer) |
RASP had forecast some slightly difficult areas and a late start but didn't actually predict that the 17kt Northerly wind would render the Levels an uncrossable blue desert, and even Ron with Sir Chris in 711 had to abandon plans to get out of the peninsula (to join in the fun of 1000km flights) for local soaring. However all was not lost as Phil Morrison and Nick Jones in DD3 explored Exmoor and found some wave that was usable at Bampton climbing to 5000ft.
In the evening, a group from Torbay Scouts enjoyed the summery weather as the wind had eventually dropped. - J&P
