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When I were a lad…

All this youthful exuberance got me thinking back to days of sports cars, sans Mrs. B and sans mortgage. My first solo in a single-seater was a Slingsby Swallow at Kent Gliding Club in June 1972. Imagine my surprise when Alan P announced that he had located the same aircraft and was rebuilding it. Here it is 46 years later in its original livery with me on board and I’m very grateful to Alan and Paul for letting me fly her again.

I could never have imagined that I would still be so totally absorbed by gliding, so many years down the line.


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SUGC at Juniors Round 1

We certainly kicked off Juniors round one with a bang! Myself (Nick), Alex, Stan, Matt, Fin, Beanie, Marie, Pete and Jim all headed up to Sutton Bank on friday for what looked like a really good weekend. Saturday was the day when the real magic happened. Alex got to 10,000ft in a DG1001 and managed to squeeze in a first flight in a Discus, while we (Nick and Jim) surfed the 15 or so km of the southerly ridge in the Janus. The others all did 2 flights each, except for Finn who only managed the one, sadly because the afternoon flying coincided with his nap time.

We all rounded off the day with a bonfire, a spectacular fireworks display, some drinks and midnight humus and pitas. With the poor weather on sunday, we packed up and headed back south.

Huge thanks to Pete and Claire for making the Janus available and to Jim (and Pete again) for taking turns to fly us lot and the others there. Tim (+620 syndicate) also deserve special thanks for doing much the same. Overall, another superb Junior weekend and we will certainly be making an appearance at Denbigh for Round 2!

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Wednesday 31st October

Wouldn’t want to meet one of the moles responsible for those mole hills

What a splendid end to an exceptional month.  Despite the shorter day (thanks to the clock slipping back over the previous weekend) and, for most of the day,  operating on a single cable and a large tractor and trailer hauling earth (or something) from one end of the field to the other we clocked up an impressive 40 launches.  Between Ken P, Peter E and myself we kept all 3 2-seaters busy.  Thanks to the retrieve drivers being ready to collect the single cable we maintained a good launch rate.  Mainly a day for circuits but Rob Jarvis proved there was some soaring to be had with his 26 minutes.  Ken R made a determined effort to better that and clocked up 33 minutes – however, that was off two launches with one of them at 22 minutes.  Just 6 of the 40 launches got into double digit flying time.  My flight with Darren McK was particularly memorable.  He followed a red kite down a cloud street and we slowly crept up on it and overtook it very close by.  Probably the best view of a kite I’ve experienced (and I’ve flown with kites lots).  Unfortunately, my ‘phone was buried underneath my Ozee so not possible to get at it in time to take a photo.

Big thanks to Colin B for fixing the defective guillotine and Chris H for fixing another leg on the launch point wagon.  Stan O moved up market with his bargain buns – this time from Waitrose.

Over the month we clocked up a record breaking (for October) 14 flying days (previous best 11) and 371 launches (previous best 252).  However, total flying time was 57:34, only the 3rd best (best was 71:12),  Unfortunately, November is trying to compensate starting with 2 non-flying days and 3rd day is currently looking not at all promising