Saturday saw an optimistic early start with gliders and equipment out before 8:30. The weather however had other ideas and it remained bitterly cold under a stubborn 600ft cloudbase - which refused to break until nearly midday. Mark Courtney filled some time with a spinning lecture, and James Smart gave a lengthy briefing to the 3 trial lesson visitors that would later be flown in the DG505.
John and Emma on the second launch of the day (Stewart Henshall)
When flying commenced there was still cloud restricting the first launches to less than 1000ft. Conditions steadily improved and with many instructors available there was plenty of dual flying. James Flory flew first with Harvey Skeggs and later with Jon Erskine. John Sillett flew Emma Flory, Jake Stabb and Karen King. Mark Courtney flew with Phillip Hardwick, Andrew Broderick and David Weeks. Simon Minson flew with Phillip Hardwick and Stuart Thomson.
Perkoz on approach (Stewart Henshall)
Stu Proctor was kept busy on Tug Duty and later shared a couple of flights with Lisa Humphries. Pete Harmer made a late appearance (after doing some painting in the Simulator Room) to fly with Andrew Broderick.
Paul Summers made use of spare capacity with solo flights in K21 and Perkoz and Mark Wallis, Hans Jenssen and Stewart shared the Junior flying. RASP showed enough promise to bring out a few more gliders, however no cross-country flying materialised. Rowan managed 42 mins in Libelle CLM, Eric Alston 39 minutes in G29, and best of the day was Pete Startup with 84 mins in 230.
The soaring inquisition (Stewart Henshall)
Andy Davey made the last flight of the day with a 4000ft aerotow for some stall-turn practice in the short winged Perkoz - Stewart Henshall
