The forecast for the morning was dire, but some hope for a flyable afternoon meant that a small group of Thursday regulars gathered at North Hill. A few jobs were done with Peter Smith and Ian Hunt leading the work on the tractor, and Ashley Thomas providing some welcome sealing of the front and top of the LPV from the rain. Ashley also had a theory briefing on launch failures from Pete Harmer. A group led by Peter Smith enjoyed a walk in the woods to visit the pump house.
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| If you go down in the woods.......(Peter Smith) |
As if by magic and right on time the skies opened up at lunchtime and with just a little moist orographic cloud to clear the kit was prepared for flying.
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| Empty launch point (Jill Harmer) |
The 14:00 trial lesson visitor was pleased that he hadn't cancelled as he enjoyed a very pleasant flight with Chris Wool on the ridge and with thermals.
Meanwhile Peter Smith started on the short two-seat training list, and both Juniors were enjoying long flights.
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| Nearby showers (Peter Smith) |
During the afternoon, the sky kept changing with showers nearby, but was soarable until dusk, with Aston Key getting the longest flight of 1hr 10 and being called down.
A really pleasant surprise for such a lovely afternoon, with 17 winch launches and 3 aerotows (although it did get quite cold in the air). - Thanks all -J&P
Expeditions- Long Mynd
We started the day early in hope of the strong ridge flying day we’d been looking forward to all week. After a quick briefing and getting the hangar unpacked we were at the launch point and ready to fly by mid morning. Unfortunately Mike Sloggett’s weather prediction turned out to be correct, and low lying cloud and mist engulfed the airfield therefore stopping all flying before the first launch. We returned to clubhouse and Mark and Simon flew their models (surprisingly with no crashes!).
After lunch. flying commenced fully with Charlie Broderick taking the first launch of the day with Mark Courtney and enjoying a 30 minute ridge running flight. Jacob Brook was next, enjoying a similar flight with Simon Leeson. Charlie S and Josh had shorter flights but enjoyed lots of ridge runs and the strong ridge lift. Dan Hender flew the K6 DRE for over an hour, making it his longest solo yet. Ross Pratt took 4 launches in the K6 and enjoyed having the most launches out of all the juniors.
The North Hill private gliders DG1 (Tom Sides), M (Andy Davey), FMS (Andrew Logan) and FUN (Mike Sloggett) all enjoyed soaring flights along the ridge and demonstrated a few high speed passes to those on the ground.
Ruth was sent solo in the K13, an excellent achievement. Thanks to Mark Jerman, the MGC instructor.
The day ended with JZK and DRE de-rigged and prepared for the long journey home. It was an excellent day to end the junior week at Long Mynd. - Thank you to our hosts Midland Gliding Club - Charlie Broderick
Expeditions- Long Mynd
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| Getting going (Mike Sloggett) |
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| Mike Sloggett in FUN enjoying the Long Mynd ridge (Mike Sloggett) |
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| Well done to Ruth Comer - solo at Long Mynd (Tom Sides) |
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| Packing up by headlight (Mark Courtney) |
