Towards the end of the week, RASP and the Met Office forecasts had indicated sub-optimal conditions for Saturday, with a high humidity and a potentially low cloud base, which probably explained why there was just a handful of keen folk at the club on Saturday morning. With the winch and vehicles ready to go by 0815, the half-dozen assembled club members sat in the clubhouse, drinking tea and eagerly awaiting the arrival of the duty instructor for a ‘go/no go’ indication. As it happened, the day was better than expected with a good cloud base and a gentle breeze from the south west and DI James Flory declared the field fit for winch launching.
Both K21’s, a Junior and the Perkoz were readied for service, with Stu Proctor and Glenn Turpin (afternoon DI) arriving early to support James (who was also doubling up as duty tuggie) with instructor duties. Simon Minson was also on site to put James Smart through a robust day of Basic Instructor Qualification flying ability tests. Despite the limited number of club members on site qualified to undertake winching, logging and retrieving, an ‘all hands to the pump’ mentality resulted in some fantastic teamwork, in particular from the Junior cohort, which resulted in a successful, rewarding days’ gliding.
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| Simon Minson congratulates James Smart IFP to BI (Andy Batchelor) |
There was a little around in the way of lift, but a combination of good winch launches and some patches of zero sink near the ridge resulted in flight times of around 11 or 12 minutes, and all those who wished to fly did so several times each. The jewel in the crown was James Smart successfully achieving his BI qualification. To those of us watching, it looked like hard work, with James having to make safe landings from all manner of imaginative launch failures from aerotow and winch as well as the upper air work, but James was heard to say that he actually enjoyed the experience…! Well done James.
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| A rewarding day (Simon Minson) |
With 31 winch launches and 4 aerotows, flying was complete by around 1600. A very rewarding day with some great teamwork evident from all throughout – thanks to all who contributed to make the day possible. - Andy Batchelor
