With the weather preventing flying on both Wednesday and Thursday this week, my prediction of a good day today was thankfully correct! The call for an early start was taken to heart by many members today, James Hood and I arrived by 08:15 and the winch was already out with several members beavering around getting things ready.
The clubhouse was full by 08:55 ready for the brief briefing at 9, by 09:10 everything was covered so the gliders were towed to the NE fence in expectation of a launch before 09:30.
Unfortunately despite blue sky’s above, the fog in the valley decided to engulf the west end of the field as soon as the westerly wind picked up.
The fog rolled up the ridge at the west end (Mark Courtney)
The first launch was therefore delayed until 10:30, which was a shame as we were all ready by 09:25. Small areas of lift enabled some extended circuits, this provided extra time for the trainees to polish their skills. Stuart Procter was tug driver today, and was pleased that a few members decided to keep current on aerotow.
Great sky, with new member Christian Sheer (Peter Smith)
I was helped today by several instructors, Pete Smith, Steve Westlake, James Flory, JB, and Shaun Dayman, Tom Sides looked after the only booked trial lesson visitor.
The day ran like clockwork, mainly due to the duty launch marshals, the morning shift was Kevin Fairburn with Trevor Russell kindly stepping in to cover the vacant slot in the afternoon.
With the large number of people on site it was easy to continue through lunch with instructors “slipping off” separately for a bite to eat. The clubhouse was positively buzzing over lunch, Ian Mitchell’s trial flight saw several members of the family attending, booklets and information was taken away, we hope to see at least two of them back, for a flight soon.
Pete Harmer about to launch as the sun started sinking (Simon Minson)
The lucky few had extended circuits under a some wispy street-like clouds that appeared for a while. Joel Roulson went on a practice field-landing exercise with James Flory in VG.
We managed to get through the flying list somehow before darkness fell, - 43 flights in all. Lots of smiling faces could be seen at the hangar despite the fact the gliders had to be washed and thanks to the team for derigging LRD ready for Annual inspection.
End of the day view to the west (Mark Courtney)
After flying the clubhouse still remained busy, the last of us heading home at 19:45!
A fabulous autumn day which proved to be extremely enjoyable thanks to a great team effort by everyone.
Hope the next one is not too far away! - Mark Courtney
