With a gloomy lowish cloud-base it was no great surprise to arrive mid morning and find the hangar doors still shut. In the clubhouse Duty Instructor Mark Courtney had a group looking at some cross-country / bronze stuff and was warming up for a chat about how wings work…
With hints of higher cloudbases, a few of us got the field set up to be rewarded by rain. Undeterred the next gap was used to drag gliders across to be rewarded by some more lower cloud.
Dan Hender and Chris Coville flew the Junior while Mark demo’d a straight ahead simulated launch failure to Harvey. I dodged the cloud with Ben and noted it was basically soarable apart from …the rain! This caused a break in the proceedings but flying restarted after lunch and a most of those left that wanted to fly flew. Josh got some more solos, Jack some Red Card exercises and the Junior went on some more missions.
By the close of play it was getting quite pleasant and I had half an hour with an ex 737 pilot (Alan R) who started to remember what the “foot rests” were really intended for as he made the most of the weak hill/thermal lift. Thanks to Tim Petty for a long session on the winch and Dan for keeping his mum’s stool warm in the launch wagon. - John Pursey
