Author: Blogger

What a beautiful day! OK not much cop for soaring and the wind was stubbornly at 90deg to any chosen direction, but a blazing sun shone all day. Colin managed half an hour soaring in the K8 but not much else stuck (sorry yes Nigel you did too).

Special mention to Carol, busily re-skinning the Janus trailer on his 50th wedding anniversary.

At least there wasn’t any fog and the sun did appear.  With a stiff 90 degree cross wind and strong sink (6 down) a good day for annual checks.  This kept the duty instructor entertained for a while and gave the winch driver (Chris K) the opportunity to show off his creativity in producing launch failures.  Peter E flew with David N who signed up as a member – our 3rd junior member within a month.
I guess you’re probably thinking “with that strong sink, there must have been some lift on offer”.  Unfortunately no – well not within our reach.  With the longest flight of the day going to Chris K with an 8 minute flight, that tells you how “good” it was.

On entering the airfield the first challenge was to find the hangar.  The closer you got to it the thicker the fog.  The met man had promised the fog would burn off and we’d be bathed in bright sunshine so it was just a matter of being patient.  We managed to keep ourselves occupied.  While Ken H and Paul B solved the mystery of lack of power to the radio on the reserve winch the rest of us derigged JMX and moved it into the workshop and clubhouse.
By early afternoon toys were out and we were ready to fly and the launch point (at the south end) was in bright sunshine.  Problem was, from there the winch was not visible.  Waited a little longer and it appeared but orographic cloud still coming off the ridge.  Time came to take a weather check and as the winch power disappeared when I was at 1,200′ half way up the field, I realised that the winch driver must have lost sight of me.  Line of cloud below me very noticeably following the ridge.  Found my way back to the launch point and we waited another hour.  Everyone who wanted to fly got a launch before canopy misting brought an enforced end to the day.  Just a dozen launches and Rob J claimed longest flight of the day with 8 minutes (which the log keeper claimed was more to taking off just before the minute clicked over and landing just after another minute clicked over).
It was one of those days that we seemed to have more problems than usual but we over came them, flew and ate donuts (thanks to Paul B filling the donut gap while Peter M is recovering).

The sun comes out, the temperature rises and more people appear at the airfield.  Hardly classic flying conditions (inversion with limited soaring opportunities and so-so vis) but just good to be out and flying.  Bit of a queue formed for the one K13 available but Ken P (duty instructor) worked his way through the list, completing it by sunset.  The Puchacz boys (EUF) rigged and got in lots of launches.  There was also the first appearance of Justin’s “new” Pirat.  Justin was one happy bunny.

Bob B was the subject of envy, provoking comments such as “that’s a big one Bob”, “have you seen the size of Bob’s” and “how does he hold something that big steady?”.  Certainly his new lens was producing spectacular results, such as the photo above.
After a 30 year lay-off from flying, Andrew P popped in to take a look at our operation, flew and joined on the spot.
Special mention of (and thanks to) Rod H who provided us with excellent launches to 2,000′ for much of the day.