The long and short of today was that there were long and short flights. A good weather forecast and related optimism for another nice flying day resulted in the two-seater flying list being rather full before the 9am briefing in the Clubhouse had even started and, unusually, only two names on the Junior flying list. The launch point and winch were set up for the Northern boundary of the airfield and post briefing all three available two-seaters and a Junior were soon being walked across with flying underway just before 10am.
Ron Johns and Mike Sloggett started to work their way through the flying list with increasing numbers of steps being achieved through the walking back from various parts of the airfield when launches just could not get to full height (for some reason…). Martin Woolner then arrived to provide more help from the back seat and the flying list made steady progress by lunchtime.
Alan Rappaport now checked out for tug pilot in Bumblebee (Mike Sloggett)
The earlier arrival of Alan Rappaport to supervise the removal of Bumblebee from the glider hangar had been suitably welcomed as was his confirmation that he would be available as a tug pilot for the day. Dave Perriam looked after our Trial Lesson visitors in and amongst which Paul Summers completed a Friends and Family flight.
Various private owners (Peter Smith FUN, Mark Wallis CEC, Chris Woodward HKB and Stewart Henshall (HMS) all took their gliders for long or not so long flights on a day which was good in many parts of the sky but not always as good as it looked in some parts…
After lunch James Flory arrived for his eighth consecutive day of instructing and the afternoon saw continuing progress with the flying list with even more walking back from various parts of the airfield for Mike who just did not seem to want to get to the top of the winch launch. Late afternoon saw Martin complete some spinning refresher/check flights in the Perkoz with Paul and George Sanderson whilst Mike kept Pete Warren company for the last soaring flight of the day in KEK.
A busy day with lots of good teamwork throughout - well done to all involved and a particular thank you to Alan for flying Bumblebee all day which helped immensely with winch launch rates and capacity for those present. - Mike Sloggett
