A cold but calm and bright day called a fair size crowd of about twenty souls to North Hill. Early low cloud dissipated to reveal a beautiful, slightly wintry scene in the valley below, as the frost hung around before being banished by the sun. Winds were light but with enough east in them to require setting up at the far end and we headed skywards shortly before 11:00.
Nice in the sun (Mike Rigby)
Both K21s were in action, along with the Perkoz and a Junior. Training took place for the likes of Brentor’s Steve Lesson (who is not Simon Leeson!) and also for John Davis, Nicholas Johnson and I taking place under the tutelage of CFI Mark Courtney and Chris Wool. Other Thursday stalwarts including Andy Davey, Rob Rand, John Borland, Ashley Thomas and George Sanderson, variously took the two-seaters or the Junior for a spin, while Aston and Mike Horwood put in long stints on the winch and cable retrieve respectively. Less than two weeks out from the winter solstice, we were keen to maximise the available light and staggered lunch to avoid having to break. Flights were unsurprisingly short but a brief period of an hour or so in the earlier afternoon as some convective cloud came through did offer some lift with flights of 10-20 minutes.
Watching Andy doing aerobatics (Mark Courtney)
Andy Davey, in HCX, had Robert Lee take him to 5,000ft for the Pawnee’s only outing, whereafter we watched Mr Davey engage in some aerobatic amusement. Longest flight of the day was 50 minutes in the Perkoz under the control of Pete Startup. After so much unusable weather, it was a very pleasant and productive day, with some weak winter sun and the lack of wind keeping the frostbite at bay. - Mike Rigby
