Whilst it was a rather chilly start to the first Thursday Club day in June, with the rather unseasonal weather of recent months still requiring jumpers and the odd coat or two to be worn, the sun was shining and the forecast suggested a good flying day.
With a Course week well underway a joint Course/Club briefing informed all present as to the plan for the day with gliders allocated between the Course and Club.
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| Setting up the Launch Control (Library picture) |
With the Launch Point already set up on the Northern boundary and the winch in the NW corner of the airfield (thanks to Course helpers) pre-briefing it should have been a simple matter of getting the gliders out of the hangar and a short walk across to the other side of the airfield after daily inspections had been completed. However with one of the K21s having a flat tyre on the main wheel this caused a suitable delay - but with toolboxes and willing members present the main wheel was worked on whilst the remaining gliders were carefully manoeuvred around the K21.
Club flying soon got underway mid morning with Pete Harmer taking the first flight of the day in HCX with Mike Sloggett keeping Pete company - and with the sky improving steadily the launch queue gradually increased in numbers with Club and private gliders soon being launched efficiently.
As the morning progressed it was, as is often the case in gliding, a question of whether the first thermal could be found from the winch launch - some pilots were successful and ‘disappeared’ for several hours whilst others were soon back on the ground wistfully looking skywards at what might have been and getting back into the launch queue for further flights.
During the day when the sun shone it was pleasantly warm, when the sun was hidden by clouds, not so - but as the day unfolded the sky steadily became more and more thermic with Club gliders needing to airbrake down to allow others to have some fun. With no tug aircraft the Perkoz was used to good effect by successfully climbing away from a winch launch on several occasions to allow spinning exercises to be completed.
A very enjoyable day, with great teamwork allowing Course and Club flying to make the most of the day 43 launches in total . - Mike Sloggett
Cross-country flying
230 "Salvaged this Club 100 from a failed task. A worthy Sage (Ron) said while sucking through his teeth 'you don't want to go to Hatherleigh in a brisk Westerly wind'. Tried and failed - should've listened.
If only it was yesterdays airmass, it was very rough today - even the Sage(after saying we shouldn't go there), had a go anyway and gave up in his ASH25. Trouble is a Silver distance attempt was going there so we felt we should go too." Pete Startup
Pete Harmer and Chris Wool took the Perkoz to MUD and back in some fairly nice air.
(ed:The Silver distance attempt changed their mind at a very early stage....)
