The day started out with mist filling the Otter, Culm and Exe valleys until 11:30 when it burnt off. With the field being damp with dew. There was a clearing sky and quickly this turned into wispy clouds and a promise of bright sunshine. Members set to work quickly getting the gliders and equipment out for an early start. While this was happening, the clubhouse whiteboard was cleared of artistic doodles showing early launch-failures and replaced with a very neat announcement of “Scorchio” along with its attendant warnings.
First flight of the day was taken by Mark, who subjected Andy Batchelor to a launch failure as part of his bronze assessments. Soon after the day’s flying began in earnest with James Flory working through the instructor list. Pete Harmer took on the duty of hauling hot aircraft slowly into the hot sky, giving Andy Davey a tow to 4000 feet. This was followed by a nausea-inducing (for those of us on the ground) descent with demonstrations of a wide range of aerobatic manoeuvres clearly narrated by Mark Courtney. Meanwhile, others on the ground were debating who would arrive first – the tug or the glider.
There were a number of trial lessons today, and out came the umbrellas to give the visitors some welcome protection from the sun. Dan Hender had another opportunity to fly some of the visitors as IFP, and the additional pleasure of learning about the paperwork - "completing the temporary membership forms." On the plus side, the first trial flight was 34 minutes giving a great experience for the visitor. Phil Morrison took Lily Sanders Page up for a winch launch, which resulted in 18 minutes – the longest of the winch flights and the longest flight was Chris Warnes flying a 40 minute flight. Following this, flight times were generally quite short but this did enable some progress with the flying list which had a large number of people on it. Emma Flory had a chance to do some spin training and, upon landing, seemed up for more!
Cockpit covers were very much in evidence today and while the umbrellas weren't being used for the trial lesson visitors, members on the regular flying list got the same respite of shade in their cockpits. Unfortunately there was nothing that could really be done for those in Launch Control, so well done to Sally Hender for enduring the greenhouse heat while dealing with the airfield arrivals and departures.
 |
| Well done to Joel - converting to Junior (Ivan Roulson) |
With the day having calm conditions it was a white card day. There was around 5 knots of easterly wind so there were good conditions for some solos. This meant that Joel could get converted to the Junior so after a quick solo in the K21 he got 2 Junior flights putting a smile on his face. (ed: Well done Joel)
And well done also to Andy Batchelor for completing his Bronze endorsement with CFI Mark, and to Andy Broderick for getting part way through his Bronze flying test today.
The day concluded at around 4:30 with a batch of hanger landings and post-flying unwinding in the clubhouse with a successful day of flying with a total of 38 launches. - Joel Roulson
