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Friday 15th December

Unusually Wednesday got moved 2 days this week.  Wet Wednesday and a promise of NNWly wind on Friday clinched the deal.  So often moving Wednesday results in a poor turn out but this was an exception with 17 members flying.

Bob B got flying started and with just 3 club gliders at the launch point suggested folks limit themselves to 30 minutes so that everyone would get a chance to fly.  Turns out the ridge wasn’t living up to it’s promise so that restriction wasn’t anything for folks to concern themselves about,  Bob then took the Vega for 32 minutes.

Tony P turned up armed with home made fruit cake and brownies.  Took the first launch (11 minutes) then headed home as he’d left a plumber there.  He left the cake which got polished off by the end of day.  Fairy cakes and chocolate teacakes appeared too.

I was kept entertained with doing checks.  We clocked up 28 launches.  Colin B rounded off the day flying with Sheila I in the Puchacz launching to 2,000 feet, once down to 800 feet played the ridge until sunset.

Talking of sunset – one more week and the days start to get longer 🙂

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Wednesday 6th December

Running into unexpected rain on the A4 on my way to the club didn’t bode well.  Arrived at the club to find folks sheltering in the club house but then the sun made an appearance so we got the toys out and it went into hiding.  Having got set up we just carried on, after all, the wind was straight down the runway.  This provided launches up to 2,000′.

With no pre-solo pilots in attendance I was forced to find out if I could remember how to fly from the font seat.  This resulted in the longest flight of the day of 10 minutes.  This was immediately matched by Paul B and then Steve B.  I then resorted to persuading folks that it was a good day for annual checks.  The day ended when the drizzle came in and stuffed the visibility.

15 launches and Ken H made progress with the new launch point vehicle.  An enjoyable day.

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Wednesday 29th November

The promise of a north wind was enough to bring out The Duo Discuss, LS3 and an ASW-15 out to play plus the K13 was taken out of the workshop and rigged.  The ASW-15 was Alan P’s latest project – taking its first launch in 20 years.

Despite a near perfect wind direction and a reasonable strength the first few, shortish, flights reported burst of strong lift but also strong sink.  Not surprisingly launches were excellent (1,800′ in the a Puchacz was the best I saw).  Into the afternoon the ridge got more usable with most getting between 10 and 20 minutes.  The exception to these were Bill C and Ken R in the Duo with 1:13 and Colin B in the Ls3 with 1:15.

We clocked up 33 launches which included the two new members Paul M and Sheila I.  At the end of the day (well, a bit before allowing some time before it got dark) HCF was derigged and packed into its trailer ready to go away for its refinish.  Ken H made further progress on the “new” launch point wagon.

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Sunday 19th Nov – a typical winter’s day

Time was running out to complete my instructor renewal checks and so came the message ‘please be early tomorrow’. The day it dawned bright and cold. However mine and Phil’s interpretation of that phrase being somewhat different, when I arrived on the airfield he had pretty well finished setting it up. So I blended in with operations, hoping he hadn’t noticed (fat chance of that!).

With me all done and dusted before midday the next priority was trial lessons. Meanwhile Carol, ably assisted by Ken P gave service to the lively cohort of S’ton Uni students, while Phil once again took an unfamiliar front seat, this time for Peter Ellison’s instructor checks. And to add a bit of zest, the usual rivalry between K8 pilots managed to wring the absolute best out of the odd convective puff that dotted a pastel blue sky with some near 20 minute flights.

So it went on relentlessly until a glorious sunset stopped play.

The energy in the club these days is contagious – long may it be so!