The Junior National Development Squad first training weekend for Dan Hender was held at Lasham over the Easter Weekend. Like most DSGC members, Dan has had very little soaring preparation time this season although JDP was aired last weekend.
It was an early start for the road trip to Lasham on Good Friday, left at 5am, but we successfully avoided all the Bank holiday traffic and arrived at 7.30!!! Dan then spent the day studying the theory of competition flying with the Junior Team and rest of the Development Squad. We then rigged the glider ready for Saturday flying, and tried to pitch his tent for the weekend, only to find one of the poles was snapped! So there was a frantic scramble to try to fix it, but fortunately one of the bunk rooms was available, so Dan managed to bag it for the weekend.
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| Preparing for the day (Rob Hender) |
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| Halfway back on the grid - gives time for cloudbase to rise...(Rob Hender) |
It was a proper grid at Lasham with Dan about halfway. Dan launched at about 12:00, and headed west towards Compton Abbas, nipping into the first turnpoint following Tom Arscott (current World champion), and feeling very grateful to find lift of 4 knots as the cows were starting to get bigger!
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| A proper grid at Lasham (Lasham weather webcam) |
Back via Basingstoke then North, turning the last turn point at Didcot, Dan found himself flying alongside Andy Holmes into wind for the return leg. Landing at about 3:30pm, and a difficulty downloading the flight, he then attended the debrief to find out what he should have done! Then off to a group bbq for the evening.
Sunday 31st, there was a final chat with the group first thing, but all decided to derig, with the weather forecast not looking promising for Monday. We then made the decision to pack up. So lots of learning points for Dan (check the tent as well as the glider!) and a decent day's flying while all at North Hill were looking at a waterlogged airfield. - Sally Hender
