Assuming the weather forecast for today was accurate the day was potentially going to be “interesting” - it was just a question of to what extent and whether the forecast heavy rain showers would bring an early end to the day’s flying activities.
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| Powerful skies today (James Hood) |
With the morning evidently flyable, Peter Field and Rick Andrews, as the morning Duty team, were soon organising Club gliders out of the hangar and for the launch point to be set up in the North East corner of the airfield.
Alongside Club training flights there were a number of Friends and Family flights to be completed so with good teamwork the gliders were soon being steadily launched into the air by either the Pawnee or winch and in turn retrieved back to the launchpoint.
During the morning, despite evident rain showers to the West of the airfield, the launches and landings continued undeterred whilst the flying list made steady progress - for some gliders there were good thermals to be used to climb to cloudbase at around 2000ft, but for some gliders there was simply lots of sinking air and a relatively quick return to the airfield.
And then around lunchtime greying skies and in turn drops of rain encouraged a stop for refreshments.
Alongside Club training flights there were a number of Friends and Family flights to be completed so with good teamwork the gliders were soon being steadily launched into the air by either the Pawnee or winch and in turn retrieved back to the launchpoint.
During the morning, despite evident rain showers to the West of the airfield, the launches and landings continued undeterred whilst the flying list made steady progress - for some gliders there were good thermals to be used to climb to cloudbase at around 2000ft, but for some gliders there was simply lots of sinking air and a relatively quick return to the airfield.
And then around lunchtime greying skies and in turn drops of rain encouraged a stop for refreshments.
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| A sign of things to come (Mike Sloggett) |
But with brightening skies and the weather radar suggesting that rain would stop play later in the afternoon, it was back to the launchpoint to endeavour to complete the flying list. No sooner had the decision been made to start flying then a rain shower appeared and with a warning from the winch that hailstones were starting to fall at the West end of the airfield it was now a question of seeing how many people could quickly fit inside the launchpoint vehicle!
After the rain had gone through the focus was then on completing the rest of the flying list - once this had been achieved by mid-afternoon, against a backdrop of increasingly grey skies, the decision was made to put the gliders and ground equipment away and close the hangar doors on a day where as much flying as possible had been squeezed out of the day.
After the rain had gone through the focus was then on completing the rest of the flying list - once this had been achieved by mid-afternoon, against a backdrop of increasingly grey skies, the decision was made to put the gliders and ground equipment away and close the hangar doors on a day where as much flying as possible had been squeezed out of the day.
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| Time to put the gliders away (Mike Sloggett) |
As ever great teamwork all round to get others into the air - and a particular thank you to Rob Hender who winched all day without flying. - Mike Sloggett
