Another quietish day at the Club which was just as well with only Mike Sloggett, James Flory and Ian Mitchell available for instructing. The gliders were brought out of the hangar just before 9am and the winch run set up to allow for the Southerly wind direction and potential drifting winch ropes.
Morning briefing completed gliders were soon being walked across to the launch point which had been postioned just off the North boundary fence to allow gliders wanting aerotows to be towed behind Launch Control rather than in front of the winch queue, and in turn to allow aerotows to launch without taking off over the winch ropes. The first winch launch of the day saw a rope break on the ground run, but speedy splicing saw launching back underway shortly afterwards.
The flying list made steady progress during the day with Tom Sides looking after our booked Trial Lesson visitors and Peter Stapleton busy in the EuroFox most of the day.
Spotters Groups (Wes Poxton)
"Huge thanks to everyone at the club today for making our guests from the Exeter Spotters Group and the Dunkeswell Spotters Group feel welcome. They had a lot of questions about gliding and have left with a greater understanding of gliding. A few want to get trial lessons and start flying with us too. Especially the youngsters. The parents were pleasantly surprised at how cheap gliding can be.
K21 (Stuart Thomson)
Huge thanks to Vicki at North Hill cafe for feeding the hoard! I’ve never seen a queue so long at the cafe. Thanks to Cheryl and Graham as well for dusting off their aprons to help as well. Review from one them, “better than Dunks breakfast”! Five ⭐ " Stuart Thomson
Club EuroFox (Stuart Thomson)
Hans Jenssen HMS, Andy Williams/Mike Sloggett FUN and Richard Roberts V5 all flew their own gliders, with the thermals proving a little tricky to find and lacking real consistency, ‘switching on and off’ during the day, and limiting flight times for all whether private or Club gliders.
By late afternoon with the flying list completed there was just time for Benji, one of our new junior members, to have the last launch of the day, a good reward for his enthusiasm and effort in helping others to get into the air after arriving mid-afternoon and putting his name on the flying list ‘in hope’…
Another day when everyone helped others to get into the air, thanks all involved. - Mike Sloggett
