A brighter start to the day than the forecast lead us to expect, but the forecast for wind was on the spot all day. Given the crosswind we put the winch close to the old cattle grid and a vehicle on the north east corner of the seeded area and used it as an aiming point for the cable run and launch position, thus enabling the winch drivers to keep the cables away from the fences and trees.
We started fairly short-handed, Gordon Hutchinson did the winch and retrieve, Paul Medlock the launch point. First away was Ashley Thomas completing a card check. Simon Minson did a first flight with Ivor Starkey, followed by a delay because of a deflated nose wheel which our multi-tasking Treasurer was able to resolve. Meanwhile Dave Perriam enjoyed winch and aerotow launches in the Junior with Pete Warren in the tug. Ella Penny was next in HCX getting some good stick time to smooth out handling skills and managing the longest winch launch flight of 39 mins.
Congratulations to Stewart Henshall for passing his Navigation test with Ian Mitchell in Rotax Falke completing his Cross-country Endorsement.
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| Well done to Stewart Henshall (Sue Henshall) |
There was lift about pretty well exactly as RASP predicted but broken by the wind. Tom Sides had the longest flight of the day at 49 minutes from an aerotow. Simon also flew with Alec Starkey, also with Tony Unwin, a gilder pilot returning to the fold after some while away from gliding, welcome back! Guy Adams in the afternoon slot completed card checks with Gordon and also flew with chief archaeologist Jonathan Erskine. Ashley did the honours in the winch. Thank you to all who made the day work. - Peter Smith
