After far too many flying days lost to weather so far this year, today was hopefully, a sign of the good flying days ahead. That we flew today was down to the persistence of various people working behind the scenes to see if we could perhaps work together with our fellow aviators at Dunkeswell and use one of the tarmac runways to aerotow whilst North Hill airfield continued to dry out. And so it was that a ‘call to arms’ saw quite a few members turn up at North Hill bright and early under nice blue skies and lovely sunshine with a plan worked out to allow some gliding to happen.
Mark Courtney and Ian Mitchell took the EuroFox across to Dunkeswell to talk though the final plan for the day and to check that the wind direction and strength would allow aerotowing, whilst both K21s were brought out of the hangar and daily inspections completed - Mark and Ian returned shortly thereafter to declare that the plan was on! With the airfield still quite soft in many places it was decided that the K21s would be flown solo by Glenn Turpin and Mike Sloggett for the ‘hop flights’ across to Dunkeswell, with the wind having developed some Easterly component both were walked down to the West end of the airfield which took longer than the ‘hop flights’ to our neighbours’ airfield!
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| Eurofox and K21 at Dunkeswell (James Hood) |
And then after a suitable briefing by Mark at the Dunkeswell ‘launch point’ to add to the information messages provided yesterday to Club members it was on with the flying list which by now was rather long, unsurprisingly after the past few weeks.
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| Dunkeswell Aerodrome (Mike Sloggett) |
With great teamwork manoeuvring the K21s and the EuroFox in and amongst a very busy airfield with both visiting and powered aircraft. and helicopters, all keen to take advantage of the lovely weather. The day saw everyone present get into the air, regaining currency as well as invaluable experience from flying at a different airfield to usual. Instructors and tug pilots shared the opportunity to fly and whilst members only got one flight each the smiles and enjoyment of doing so were evident throughout the day.
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| A busy day at Dunkeswell (James Hood) |
As the flying list was completed late afternoon the K21s were ‘hopped back’ to North Hill and the success of the day readily discussed by all.
Getting Ready (Shaun Dayman)
A big Thank You to Mark and others for this initiative which went well and provided experience as well as learnings for when we all being well visit again (and Thank You to Nick for kindly transporting a golf buggy to/back from Dunkeswell) - and of course a particular Thank You to our neighbours at Dunkeswell Aerodrome without whose help and support today would not have been possible. - Mike Sloggett
