After a quiet day at the Club yesterday it was thought that a good weather forecast for today might see more members at the Club. However the flying list was limited to start with and then slowly but surely more members arrived so it was on with the day. All four two seater gliders and a Junior were brought out of the hangar ahead of daily inspections and canopy cleaning whilst the launch point was set up in the North East corner of the airfield.
And then the day’s flying got underway - with thermals becoming evident from mid-morning onwards, as ever from the winch it was a question of finding the first helpful thermal to allow further sky searching for better thermals to be undertaken.
Late morning there was a rope break which due to the crosswind saw the drogue parachute disappear into the trees on the South side of the airfield and this meant a single rope winch operation for some time until order could be restored and twin launch operation resumed.
After lunch a second Junior was brought into use and the afternoon saw several members having good flights in a Junior whilst the 2-seater flying list progressed well.
Alongside our booked Trial lesson visitors, we also welcomed Chris Jones and Kristen Rapp from FlyBe following our liaison visits last month. Kristen is a Silver C pilot from Germany and Chris enjoyed silent flight for the first time, we hope to see them both again soon.
Although RASP was suggesting some useful cross-country conditions the private owners found it hard going. Pete Startup 230 got to North Tawton but decided that Dulverton was a turnpoint too far. Rowan Smith CLM spent an hour west of Tiverton trying to get into wave. Robert Lee DKU enjoyed a flight to Wellington. Pete and Jill Harmer OL took off just as they all arrived back and went off looking for the wave - to no avail.
And it seemed that almost as soon as we had started flying for the day it was time to put the gliders and ground equipment away.
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| Tricky day for cross-countries (Jill Harmer) |
On a day when teamwork was needed to get other members into the air we had just that - Thank You to all who helped in one way or another today - 46 flights in total. - Mike Sloggett
