A group of Flybe Diploma Course students from Exeter College arrived for their day of Trial flights with some fairly dark skies and low-level cloud at North Hill. There had been quite a bit of rain on Thursday, but the airfield had drained well as usual. The introductory session was followed by some gliding videos and some sessions in the simulator.
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| Flybe Diploma Course from Exeter College (Jill Harmer) |
With an early lunch, the promised weather improvement arrived and the flying started. It was easily soarable from the first launch to 1500ft for extended circuits. As the day went on the cloudbase rose to 2000ft , but with a short spell of cloud at 1300ft. The students all enjoyed the experience of gliding and soaring, with several considering coming back for more.
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| Sky opens up with convergence over South ridge (Jill Harmer) |
As the students departed, the gliders were handed over to some gliding visitors from the Bath, Wilts and North Dorset Gliding Club (BWND). The Management team from The Park were visiting North Hill to try out the Perkoz and DG505 from our two-seater fleet for evaluation purposes. The experienced pilots alongside CFI Stu Procter and Pete Harmer were soon enjoying the improving soaring conditions with an increasing challenging southerly crosswind putting the two gliders through their paces.
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| BWNDGC with Stu and Pete (Jill Harmer) |
It turned into a remarkably good afternoon considering the forecast of hopeful breaks in the cloud.
It was good to host both students and experienced pilots at North Hill today - thanks to all the Helpers and Instructors. - J&P
