Usual alarm at 6am today so we could be at the club for an early start to clean and DI before the 9am (sharp) briefing. The SGC cross-country development week had their usual 40 odd gliders ready and waiting as we arrived at the club!
We (DSGC) mere mortals along with the Kent Gliding Club had our own briefing in a separate room, all very calm and stress free, stress levels slightly higher a few yards away as they planned huge tasks, several 500ks and 300ks . The grid started to launch at 12 by 1:01 all 40 gliders were on task!
A very busy airfield first thing (Mark Courtney)
All possible because of the super human effort of Reiner Kipp (airfield director) our very own Sally Hender (log keeping) and Paul ( keep that tow rope tidy) Summers.
LogKeeper of the week (Sally Hender)
Three tugs were provided, a Pawnee, a 120hp Eurofox and the star of the show out performing the other two by a large margin a beautiful Supercub 180 with a special “towing prop” wow!
SuperCub with Towing prop (Mark Courtney)
Ron and Dan launched the ASH25 and quickly disappeared to the North. The DSGC members launched their single seaters, Andy Davey, Gordon Hutchinson, Guy Adams, and Dave Perriam, they all had fantastic, very long flights.
A shorter grid for the visitors (Mark Courtney)
Mike Sloggett flew with Rob Hender then Stuart Thomson, cloud base was reported to be 4000ft from the start. The views were amazing across to a snow capped horizon in the distance, Portmoak is a very, special gliding site, very easy for newcomers but with huge potential.
Sally Hender and Paul Summers (Sally Hender)
Sally was rewarded for helping both Portmoak and our group with a flight in the DG with Paul Summers at 4pm, straight off tow and then climbed to 5000ft above site, she was ecstatic on her return.
I think there will be another Hender name going on the flying list very soon at North Hill, watch this space!
Penultimate flight of the day at 5 pm was myself with Rob, off tow and again to 5000ft, by now the wind had not looked at the forecast and was westerly. It would have been rude not to have a “close look” at the main ridge “The Bishop” to finish a fantastic week at this amazing gliding club.
Parking (Mike Sloggett)
Mike Sloggett and Dave had the final flight of the week, unfortunately the ridge had become rather busy with many parascending pilots taking advantage of the favourable conditions.
DSGC would like to thank everyone at The Scottish Gliding Club for their hospitality and friendliness.
Anyone for next year??? - Mark Courtney
