At 7.30am there was a flurry of activity from a certain young Hender, when he checked the RASP forecast for the day, and mutterings of ‘300’ and ‘Lasham’ were heard. We arrived at the Club to find the gliders were already out of the hangar and the airfield was being set up, by a small but keen group of pilots.
The briefing at 9:15am was well attended, and we were back at the west end and launching the first glider before the 10am ‘cheap rate’, thankfully Pete Startup stepped in to drive the winch to make this happen. Well done George Lee for being first on the list.
Connor preparing to launch K6 DRE (Sally Hender)
James Flory and Simon Minson then started working their way through the two-seater list, and Stuart Procter took on the tug duties in Bumblebee. The juniors Dan Hender and Connor Williams rigged the K6 for Connor, and then took launches in JDP and DRE respectively, hoping to make the most of the day. Pete Startup (230) took a launch half an hour later hot on their heels. With an ever increasing single seat list the decision was made to get the second Junior, which was then put to good use.
Good to see LRD flying again (Stewart Henshall)
230 NH2 - Molton - Crowcombe NH2 112kms
"Small task set to finish before North Hill was wiped out by sea air, incoming high cover - or both(happened about 14:30).Got disconnected from the clouds half way along second leg and spent half an hour faffing about over the Exmoor gnarlylands before getting going again which cost me millions of speed points :)" Pete Startup
JDP Dan practiced doing an electronic declaration - but then decided to fly a different task??? Connor enjoyed more than 2 hours of local soaring with the day not lasting long enough for his 5 hrs attempt.
Gill & Phil Morrison in DD3 (Stewart Henshall)
DD3 was then brought up to the launchpoint just before 12pm by Phil and Gill Morrison, only to be told we were changing ends! They finally got their launch at 12:51pm. Flying continued through the afternoon, with numbers of helpers reducing on the airfield with the clubhouse so nearby and the draw of the excellent North Hill Cafe food!
Everyone who wanted to fly, did so, and by 4pm before the predicted rain arrived we were all packed away. - Sally Hender
