Fri 20th August - Course Week

Another day beginning with very limited visibility and no prospect of morning flight led to lectures from  (guest instructor) Mike Sloggett and Mark Courtney together with a quiz on the causes and circumstances of winch launching accidents as part of a wider briefing on safe winch launching.  

August (2) course (Mike Sloggett)

Having got the gliders out of the hangar early in anticipation of afternoon flight, some brief brighter moments and warming air teased us into thinking we might get airborne at some point, but the large, wet air mass continued to sweep over the field bringing a very low cloud base and occasional showers.

Dave Perriam, learning the skill of daily inspection, spotted an issue with the Perkoz, which was placed to one side pending further assessment so props to Dave P for his scrutiny.  

Simon Leeson supervising the cleaning (Mark Courtney)

Course members occupied our time by getting out the Perkoz trailer and giving its mossy exterior a good scrub.  The three teenaged course members continued to lead the banter, as they had all week, scrubbing some interesting shapes into the moss. Rob Hender gave Mike Rigby a tour of the recently acquired woods and the freshly-milled timber, which will go into the new  Club Trailer store, hopefully limiting the need for future trailer scrubbing?  

Transformation (Stewart Henshall)

Mid-afternoon, Mark and Steve made the call to put away the gliders on the basis that the skies just weren’t going to clear sufficiently to permit flight.  Following a final briefing, we headed home a little early following solid progress by all participants.

Course members wish to thank the instructors, Mark Courtney and Steve Westlake, with great support from Mike Sloggett, and Course helpers, Team Hender, who once again provided the backbone of our ground ops for the week. - Mike Rigby