Another beautiful sunny day at North Hill saw early mist burn off and the winch set up in the north east corner in order to manage the light northwesterly breeze.
Dave Cowley kicked things off in a K21 with some card checks, involving launch failures, and the Junior saw regular use with Lucasz taking her up early on and Pete Warren also taking her for a spin between spells on tug duty.
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| Guy Adams and Mike Rigby in VG (Mike Rigby) |
Mike Rigby was lucky enough to get a ride with Guy Adams in the SF-25, heading off to the Quantocks and Minehead for an hour, being careful to avoid the controlled airspace around a busy Hinkley Point, judging by the number of cranes that have sprung up. Given the conditions it was surprising that they barely saw another aircraft once clear of North Hill.
We had a couple of trial lessons through the day and the two-seaters were kept busy with these and those under training including Tim Powell and Mike and Harry Rigby who were all flying complete circuits as their proficiency improves, under the instruction of James Flory and JB.
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| First flight for George Stone (Mike Rigby) |
We were also pleased to welcome Gerry Stone, OC of 41F Squadron Air Training Corps, and his son, George, who enjoyed the first clutch of what we hope will be many flights at North Hill. Gerry is an experienced pilot with lots of power experience. We were a little thin on the ground so we took the opportunity to take lunch courtesy of Graham and Cheryl’s culinary expertise.
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| Training continues for Harry Rigby (Mike Rigby) |
Despite the sunny weather, the wind was insufficient to give even a tickle of lift on the ridge and there was no real thermal activity either, giving lots of short flights but given that so many of the students were after circuit practice, this was no bad thing.
A full day’s flying finishing at 1700. If this is a sign of the season to come, it’ll be a lot better than last year! - Mike Rigby
