I don’t care what you’ve done with him – WHERE’S MY SUPPER!
Maybe not Itchy, but definitely Scratchy.
The decision to move the midweek session to Thursday proved to be correct (how could it not have been?). But a sky full of cumulus at 9 a.m., although tempting 30% of those present to rig their gliders, seldom augurs well and it was soon tamed by a gathering gloomy overcast. While kings-of -the-K8 Paul Prentice and Rob Jarvis managed to cling onto patches of buoyancy for the statutory hour, others just floundered round the circuit. The faithful ground away through the afternoon honing their skills for better days ahead and then, as often happens, the end of the day produced the goods in a most unusual way.
There being light rain from high overcast and only a few ragged Cu, Paul Bryant launched at 15:45 with a view to hangar flying the K8. By the time Charles McC and I launched at 16:00 with the same intention PB had established himself in a breath of lift over the Farm. Alan Saunders followed shortly after in The Vega.
All day there had been a breath of west wind and to the east there was now a wall of light showers. The prospect of squall line conditions occurred and Charles and I edged toward it, but with little improvement in lift. At one point a visitor (Ventus?) joined us but soon disappeared eastward into the gloom. If he didn’t have motor it must have been a soggy retrieve. The three of us hung onto little breaths of lift for a while at various stations around the strip, rarely above 1500 feet, and it became interesting to note that smoke from half a dozen scattered sources was all drifting towards us. There were now showers appearing to the south, and exploring what appeared to be a widespread mass of gently rising air we encountered little change in conditions. We eventually ‘parked’ over the warmth of Shalbourne village until the hardware was packed away and we felt it would be the decent thing to let folk get on with hangar packing.
As is so often the case – “it ain’t over ’til it’s over”.
Wednesday 22nd March (best quit while you’re winning)
I received a couple of texts on the way to the airfield to the effect ‘I’m in a deluge, so going back home’. So, on arriving, was pleasantly surprised to find the gates open. Up at the clubhouse found the usual suspects shooting a line and donning overalls. ‘OK – so where’s the new thermostat?’ So off to the Winch Shelter – the only place more unpleasant than standing naked in the middle of the airfield.
Being the most agile Ken H was stuffed into the entrails of the Skybrid while we passed him tools, parts and encouraging remarks.
Then break for lunch by which time we were starting to think about flying.
.. but being a little short of numbers Denis G got stuck into the broken strimmer. The solution involved using some epoxy resin to glue things together. As this seemed to be setting a little slowly I decided to start the generator to get a little heat into it …. it refused to start….
But it was encouraging to see that our landlord had started level out some of the wrinkles on the airfield.
So expect to see heaps of soil being left in various strategic places around the airfield.
A glimmer of hope
The airfield was still like pudding this morning so the ‘Really Useful Brigade’ set about clearing detritis left behind after Jonty had ‘disappeared’ a large fallen ash limb with his chainsaw. Could make a nice thermal generator when torched.
Ken H had his umpteenth attempt at breathing life into the clubhouse heater, fortunately with a little more success this time and then turned his attention once more to the auxilliary generator. I’m not sure if this is manic dedication, masochism, or pure bloody mindedness – but all much appreciated.
Anyhoo – the promised rain did not arrive and a fair wind blew, so by eventide there was a marked improvement to the ground. Forecast is for a couple of days of fresh breezes with little precipitation, so fingers crossed for a ‘dried out’ weekend.