A better day was forecast today, which meant a busier Clubhouse for the second day of the weekend.
The Duty Instructor had been taken out for Father’s Day, so we were lucky that Mike Sloggett, Peter Smith and James Flory were happy to stand in. We then had a surprise visit from Glenn Turpin back from sailing, who after currency flights, also stepped in to help complete the list.
Flying started at 10:30am with all four two-seater gliders in use, Gordon Hutchinson (DLM) making sure everything ran smoothly. At 12:00pm, the private owners started bringing their gliders over to the launch point. Dan Hender (JDP) taking the first aero tow, closely followed by Richard Roberts (V5), Simon Minson (SM), John Burrow and Alan Rappaport (DD3), Pete Startup (230), Mark Wallis (CEC), Chris Woodward (HKB), Paul Medlock (JDD), Barbie Fairclough (DFK) and Kevin Fairburn (new syndicate partner and first flight in HMS).
230 " Cullompton - Sixpenny Handley - Cullompton 197km, Task set by Rich V5 for the North Hill Nomads 230, SM, JDP AND V5, and perfect to get us home before the day switched off." Pete Startup
SM " not quite so perfect 19km from home near Culmhead" Simon Minson
JDP " a bit tricky (slow) on the way back" Dan Hender
V5 " Well....... I overset as usual. Good day out with the DSGC team. Cloudbase was 4000ft to the east as forecast. The shut off was also as forecast, hence the 200km fallback . As it happened this was about right for the day in our location! Extracted myself from picking fields twice, seabreeze seen on North and South coasts, central part was good to really good, with odd patches that could catch you out if not high enough into the headwind. " Rich Roberts
DD3 "What 'appened was.... although the forecast wasn't great Alan and I went for a gentle bimble round the club 100. Cloudbase started at 2000ft QFE but gradually went up to 3000 with a few good climbs. " JB
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| Got a bit difficult on the way back (Simon Minson) |
Amongst the training flights, we had three previous instructors taking their turns, Peter Warren, John Sillett and Pete Harmer, lovely to see them all. Chris Warnes flew the two Trial Flight Visitors unfortunately the Eurofox failed on us part way through the day, but both visitors happily took the option of a winch launch instead and enjoyed slightly longer flights to compensate. Geoff Lawrence took over the afternoon DLM duty and organised the rest of the day successfully. Jill Harmer got back in the Launch point for the afternoon, to cover me while I flew, thank you. Everyone was flown by 5:30pm when we packed the kit away, and retired to the clubhouse for Vicki’s tea and cakes.
Thank you to everyone for another successful days flying. - Sally Hender