It was good to see several members back on the airfield after a bit of a break, and so training and check flights were in full swing with a multitude of instructors.
To start off the day there was a light north-westerly. This allowed some early solo pilots to get in some flight time. With a fantastic opportunity it was all-round good for training with 18 training flights.
At about midday, the day started to become thermic as the sun came out. Giving some excitement for everybody with comments such as “where was this weather in the summer”. The longest flight of the day was Pete Startup with 196 minutes and the longest club flight going to Simon Leeson and Rob Hender with 74 minutes at the end of the day (to the annoyance of some).
Around 3pm the conditions started to become horrible with a band of rain, turbulence and high winds coming through where it was put up to blue card where 3 people had to land within five minutes with the horrible conditions as it was beginning to become challenging.
After the rough weather, it calmed back down to red conditions for the rest of the day, with a successful day of flying with 28 winch launches and 5 aerotows.
Simon Leeson was the latest tug pilot to convert to the Eurofox, and then Peter Field and Stuart Procter both took the opportunity for more familiarisation flights. It became quite soarable locally and several private owners also enjoyed the conditions in the north westerly wind..
Karen King with Peter Smith aerotow training (Peter Smith) |
Simon Minson started the IFP revalidation with Chris Warnes, there were 28 winch launches in all plus 5 aerotows with the Pawnee. - J&P + Joel Roulson (mashup)