It wasn't that long ago that we were all moaning about the hot easterly winds that dragged on for weeks. Now its the south westerlies bringing gusty, showery days that have been plaguing us!
Instructors Mike Sloggett and Pete Smith decided on a delayed start whilst the cloudbase slowly crept up to a height a launch could be attempted. All the kit was DI'd and ready to go for the right moment. Meanwhile in the workshop further testing of the Perkoz airbrake control rod was carried out to confirm what we didn't want to hear. There are some very small cracks on the component making the aircraft unserviceable until a replacement can be sourced. Due to the unavailability of a spare in the short term the Perkoz was put in its trailer for the time being.
Thermals, ridge and weak wave today (Mark Layton)
After much pacing up and down Mike and Pete took a couple of met flights before announcing that we'd give it a go with both K21's and the two Juniors. Launches in the brisk yellow card conditions produced decent heights and along with a bit of ridge lift, thermals and weak wave extended flights were to be made if you stumbled into them at the right time.
Drizzle and low cloud at times (Mark Layton)
With Vicki being struck down with the lurgy at the last minute and the prospect of many members becoming hungry at some point during the day, stand-in catering guru Barbie volunteered to make sandwiches for everyone with donations to the DSGC Charitable Trust (Please see Sally if you didn't have any cash on you). Having stopped flying to partake, conditions changed on the restart with an amount of light rain in the air resulting in a stop/start afternoon until everyone had flown. By 15:30 the prospect to continue didn't look too great so we packed everything away, happy to have flown on yet another marginal day. Of course, as soon as the hangar doors closed it brightened up!
Both Juniors in use again (Mark Layton)
A great team effort from everyone to get people in the air and a special mention for Barbie who saved the day in the clubhouse! - Mark Layton
