As forecast, Monday 4th dawned hot and humid (again!) at North Hill as course instructors Steve Westlake and Guy Adams gathered with course fliers and trusty helpers for 2023’s final summer course C6.
September Course members, Instructors and Helpers (Chris Dimitrov)
New fliers at North Hill were Paul Ives, who is also about to start flying locally in a Eurostar syndicate at Dunkeswell; Richard (or should that be ‘Ricardo’?) Soper who arrived with past gliding experience ridge soaring over Hawai’i; and Dean Stevens,who told us how at 17 he first flew a glider in Germany from which controls had been removed as a precaution!
Also new to flying a DSGC course was Chris (Hristomir) Dimitrov who started flying at the Club a couple of weeks before on a day-trial. Other course flying participants were two North Hill regulars – both Tims: Powell and Petty. Helpers George Sanderson, Dave Perriam and Ashley Thomas completed the gang, later with Mike Sloggett taking over instruction from Guy on the Wednesday.
The first flights on Monday were notable for remarks about “rough as old socks (or whatever)” from instructors and trainees encountering lively rides up the launch from rotors apparently generated by the Southerly wind over the South and Hembury ridges. Then it was business as usual with every course member getting about 4 flights, the longest duration being Steve’s and Tim Powell’s magnificent 11 minutes.
Groundhogs week was confirmed on Tuesday morning when the WX was just like Monday’s, perhaps a little gentler up the launch cable but even hotter and more humid. Once again course members and, particularly, the apparently-melting instructors, managed to fly all day, this time with about 3 flights per trainee, the longest again at 11 minutes for Guy with Chris and Steve with Tim Petty. Unusually these longest flights were also the day’s earliest.
Wednesday welcomed Mike Sloggett to instructing on the course with the met largely unchanged, although once again a bit hotter and more humid, with initially worse visibility, but also with occasional signs of thermal lift. As Wednesday was also a Club day, Mike Sloggett flew several aerotowed flights so that the new course members could do some upper-air training and also experience flying around the local area. Meanwhile, alongside the course there were longer flights by other Club members, a day-trial lesson and the usual "Startup disappearance" for a couple of hours plus, albeit this time from an aerotow start.
A bit more cable retrieve training needed for Chris (Tim Petty)
Hotter again on Thursday -but with the addition of an on-site meteorologist just like in the film! - the conditions repeated then and through Friday too.
However, our determined instructors defied the ferocious heat and humidity every day to make this definitely a successful and one of the best North Hill summer courses. Flying was all day, every day, and ground-ops training progressed well. Truly a great team of instructors and supporting helpers. thanks to Steve, Guy and Mike and helpers Ashley, Dave and George. - Tim Petty
