The first day
of the September Course week saw us welcome existing members Andy Davey, Emma Kendall,
Richard Copus and Rob Rankin (who was so keen to come gliding at North Hill that he
had come all the way from Hong Kong where he lives and works), as well
as Andrew Darke and Doug Gage (who having come from Bangkok also had a long journey
to come gliding).
Introductions
and Course briefing completed the launch point was set up in the South
East corner of the airfield under bright skies suggesting an opportunity
o get some gliding in before the forecast rain arrived later in the day.
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| Uneventful circuits (Mike Sloggett) |
Some
uneventful circuits allowed Andrew and Doug to demonstrate that they
had not forgotten how to fly gliders from their previous course at The
Mynd whilst Emma and Rob continued with their pre-solo training - just
before lunch Andy launched in a Junior and climbed away from the winch
launch with a thermal helping him get to cloud base at around 2200’
above the airfield, staying airborne for circa an hour and a half before
the forecast rain started to appear on the horizon and leaving Andy
with no option but to land.
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| Increasing cloud (Mike Sloggett) |
Over
lunch the rain started to fall and so the week’s “ground school”
commenced with briefings on Circuit Planning and How a Wing Works - and
despite optimism that the rain and low clouds might move through in time
for some more gliding to take place during the afternoon it became
evident that such optimism was misplaced......
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| The sun came out eventually (Mike Sloggett) |
.....so the gliders and ground
equipment were put away for the day. - Mike Sloggett
