Author: pete smith

Well the title says it all, it was a day that started OK and just got better and better, in fact by the end it was awesome. In fact (not a fact) by the end the members were literally (not even figuratively) conspiring to make trebuchets, surface-to-air missiles, bows and arrows and any other means to persuade the recalcitrant K8 of Stan, conversion flight, to return to earth so the hangar packing could be completed.

Previously…

Rod, having taken his Swales to Sutton Bank and back without cracking the trailer door actually rigged it and even flew it!

Many, many other gliders rigged and flew for a long time, but the improving weather caught many out so XC was limited to neighbouring counties.

la famille Brind arrived on mass, David beginning his training as part of his DoE and Andy and Alan flying their K7. Gillian, perhaps controversially, eschewed the family glider to fly with Ken in the Duo…

That Jim G as duty bod managed to break his 2016 weather curse was a good thing, the fact the break was not complete was troublesome… With the windsock lying againt its pole we set up at the north end for the forecast southeasterly only for the wind to pick up from the north!! We waited it out for a bit before being unconvinced of the forecast.

We lobbed to the south…

From the south end we managed a few soaring flights but it was difficult to connect and the climbs lazy and broken but Jim and l worked our way through the modest list.

The wind snuck around on us.

We lobbed to the north…

Skies darkened measurably (as measured by a sky-darkness-o-meter since you ask) but training flights and trial lessons continued until we packed up in the early evening as the Sutton Bank exiles were welcomed home.