Sitting in the warm evening sun, beer in hand, it is hard to believe how foreboding the weather was this morning. Dark and dank, with the mist in the treetops.... but we persevered.
The winch went up to the west end fairly easily, keeping a few meters away from the really damp south boundary. And the tow out along the center ridge was dry enough. It was a still-wind day, so lots of power required to achieve the required torque for launches.
North Hill airfield, lush and green after all the rain (Peter Smith)
First flight was about 10 am, into a 1,100 ft cloudbase, that lifted very slowly throughout the day. The sun broke through to the south and west, but not over the site. Nevertheless, everyone had two instructional flights, to get back into check, while many practice launch failures were sprung upon unsuspecting (or not) students. Best flight of the day was only 12 minutes, but it was good to get the feet back into the air, and good to give all the equipment an airing.
Thanks to Peter Smith and Glenn Turpin, for checking everyone out. So we will all be ready for the brilliant 4-knot summer’s day we expect for next Wednesday….. ;-) - Roger Ellis (first-time blogger)
