The overnight mist had cleared before dawn to a blue day but with poor visibility and a hint of a SE breeze. The ground equipment and gliders were all out and DI’d before the 9:15 briefing by Mike Sloggett (duty instructor). (No glider DI’s were allowed to be interrupted despite use of some agent provocateurs.) The message being reinforced in the briefing, don’t interrupt someone doing a DI.
With a forecast of increasing SE wind it was decided to launch from the west end. The gliders were walked up to the west end and the first launch got away at 10:30. Some wispy low cloud had developed which caused some early launches to release early.
Chris Wool arrived to help Mike Sloggett with the two-seater list. Short flights were the order of the day until Chris and Mark Wallis found some thermal activity for a 38 minute flight. The SE wind forecast failed to materialise and with a slight west element in the wind it was decided to change ends and flying resumed from the east end.
Tom Sides flew two Trial lesson visitors (on their 4th attempt at finding a flyable day) with happy customers and Chris valiantly put three card check pilots through spin / stall practice. By the end of the day the Perkoz wasn’t sure which way up it should be flying.
Perkoz towed up by Eurofox (Jill Harmer)
All in all a successful day if a little lacking in lift, with 28 winch launches and six aerotows before James Flory and Stuart Procter took over for the (first of the season) evening flying group with 7 more winch launches. - John Borland
