On arrival at the airfield it was evident that there was a buzz of excitement in relation to the EuroFox 120hp demonstrator scheduled to arrive later in the day, with the Thursday regulars out in numbers alongside other members. The aerotow list was suitably long, but perhaps more to do with the opportunity for reduced price aerotows than being launched by a different tug to the usual Pawnee.
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| Swapping tips on the Perkoz in the fog (Mike Sloggett) |
Unfortunately the weather was not as good as anticipated with heavy fog present in all directions around the airfield as well as above it. But with suitable optimism as to the likelihood of blue skies appearing at some stage during the day and with a visit from Jemma Woodman (BBC Inside Out) also planned the decision was made to get both K21s, the Perkoz and a Junior out of the hangar. Meanwhile the ground equipment was readied for action including some replacement rope being added to one of the winch drums.
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| How much rope shall we add (Mike Sloggett) |
And then it was a question of patience - the fact that North Hill cafe ran out of clean mugs part-way through the morning was an indication of just how many members were present and eagerly anticipating the arrival of the EuroFox.
Mid-morning with the fog still lingering around and above North Hill and with similar weather at Aston Down a decision was made to postpone the EuroFox demonstration for another day.
With increasing amounts of blue sky appearing and with a long flying list, keen members were soon walking gliders down to the North West corner of the airfield - and then from late morning onwards it was non-stop flying with all available Club gliders in use for the rest of the day.
Mid-morning with the fog still lingering around and above North Hill and with similar weather at Aston Down a decision was made to postpone the EuroFox demonstration for another day.
With increasing amounts of blue sky appearing and with a long flying list, keen members were soon walking gliders down to the North West corner of the airfield - and then from late morning onwards it was non-stop flying with all available Club gliders in use for the rest of the day.
With some wave and thermal lift present to the South of the airfield, several gliders achieved almost hour long flights, including Rick Andrews and Peter Smith in Juniors, Steve Westlake and Trevor Russell, Chris Wool and Peter March in the K21s, and Gordon Bonny in DG100.
And it was nice for once (unless you were one of the pilots in question!) for the lift to be so good as to have to ask gliders to land for others to have an opportunity to fly - all being well a positive sign of the likely improving soaring conditions in the coming weeks.
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| Rotax Falke tows the Perkoz (Mike Sloggett) |
At the same time Ian Mitchell in Rotax Falke provided an aerotow for the Perkoz to allow some airborne filming with CFI Stuart Procter flying Jemma.
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| Jemma Woodman with Stuart Procter |
The wave lift disappeared as quickly as it had arrived and unfortunately the private owners who had rushed to rig Tom Sides (DG1), Wyn Davies (W7) and Pete Startup (230) missed out on the good soaring.
As the sun started to set and with everyone who wanted to fly having flown the decision was made to fly all the gliders back to the hangar - another good day made possible by everyone helping each other to fly, thanks all - Mike Sloggett
As the sun started to set and with everyone who wanted to fly having flown the decision was made to fly all the gliders back to the hangar - another good day made possible by everyone helping each other to fly, thanks all - Mike Sloggett
