What a remarkable October day! - there were positive signs by the number of private gliders being rigged, but what would the day bring? some of the early flights were short and with a northerly / sometimes slight even a tailwind made some of the launches a bit low.
About 12:30, it started to get thermic by 1:00pm the cloud base was nearly 4,000ft, but it was one of those days when some launches got away easily, but others were back on the ground in five minutes due to the poor launch heights.
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| Private gliders in the launch queue (John Street) |
The private gliders led by Pete Startup in 230 mostly had good soaring flights, Pete disappeared for most of the day (as usual) completeing a Club 100 and then sightseeing on Exmoor.
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| A nice edge to fly along (Jill Harmer) |
With the Pawnee waiting for a replacement magneto, Tom flew the Trial lesson Visitor in the Perkoz with the help of Ian Mitchell and his Rotax Falke. There was a little problem when the Skylaunch winch would not start and was making some strange noises, but Mark Layton sorted it with some magic!
It was thermic until after 5:00pm, - a real autumn bonus for some but disappointing for others, but that's gliding! - John Street
