At the briefing this morning the clubhouse was packed, but by the time we had walked the gliders up to the west end there seemed to be very few on the airfield, and there were only four names on the two-seater training list.
Duty Instructor James Flory assisted by Steve Westlake started the flying off at 10:15am. The list was actually completed by 1pm, so we stopped for lunch, due to lack of members on the airfield. Private owners, Alan Turner (CYA), Shaun Dayman (JDD), Ashley Thomas (877), Dave Perriam (DG1), Alan Rappaport and John Pursey took turns in (FWH) and John Borland (FAJ) all took launches in their own gliders. Josh Howlett had the longest flight of the day in a K21 with 97 mins. Unfortunately after lunch, we had to switch ends as predicted the wind changed direction, but it was smoothly completed and didn’t impact flying too much.
For Task week they started off the first day, with a moderate 20km task, however Rich Roberts was the only one to make the attempt, unfortunately landing out between Cullompton and Willand, so a nice short retrieve!!! We even had a member of the public (who had had a trial lesson previously) phone Tom Sides (at home) to say they thought there was a glider in trouble! Very thoughtful.
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| Sileage ready to cut ( Rich Roberts) |
The Trial Lesson visitor and Lisa’s friends and family flight (from Australia) both enjoyed their flights.
"Lovely day, I was lucky to get my neighbours son in law a couple of flights , he is a microlight pilot in Australia and will ve joining his nearest club on return! My neighbour is a member of the rotary club and will be arranging an evening for their members . Vicky’s cakes were a big success and they took away her cake recipes" - Lisa Humphries
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| Sally waiting to launch (Lisa Humphries) |
Conditions declined again as the afternoon progressed, so by 5:30pm everything was packed away. 23 winch launches and 7 aerotows. Good luck to everyone who has kindly purchased a country for the Eurovision Sweepstake this evening! 😉🤞.
- Sally Hender
