A bright cold morning greeted a good crowd of Thursday flyers accompanied by a strong gusty NE wind. The wind chill reducing the apparent temperature further. The early arrivals had worked hard to prepare the ground equipment and a welcoming log fire was warming the clubhouse.
Mike Sloggett (Duty Instructor) made an initial assessment of the conditions and decided on a SW to NE cable run and to prepare two ASK21’s leaving the SZD Junior in the hangar until a met flight to assess the flying conditions. There was no difficulty assembling everyone in the warm Clubhouse for the briefing. Andy Pincombe joining Mike to tackle a long training list.
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| Dartmoor visible to the West (John Borland) |
Following the briefing the gliders were walked to the west end. Cloud base was initially under 2000’ with approx. 7/8 cover but varied throughout the day. Following the met flight a yellow rating flag was raised and Mike decided the Junior was safe to fly.
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| Occasional glimpses of warm? sunshine (John Borland) |
Mike and Andy continued working through the training list and given the good turn out it was possible to keep flying through lunch and warmup breaks in the club house. Flight times were generally short in the gusty conditions. Roger Ellis taking the longest flight at 35 minutes having launched straight under a large dark cloud which he exploited to good effect. The North ridge area provided another source of intermittent lift but in general it was just a good day to maintain that all so important currency.
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| Aston's back (John Borland) |
It was good to see Aston re-solo after his break in sunny Cornwall. Big thanks to Mike for running the day, Andy Pincombe for helping with the training and a special thanks to Vicky for the hot meals.
A real team effort day. 21 dual flights, 9 solo flights and all kit safely stowed away by 5 pm. - John Borland
