Category: Flying Reports

After a run of 4 exceptional months February started off badly and hasn’t relented.  Yet another non-flyable day.  For a brief period the weather relented, a little, and we could clearly see the hill to the south.  During that period cloud was low and moving at a lick.  Mind, the priority for the day was getting the winch back on-line and the weather didn’t stop our stalwart “Wednesday boys”.

The new rad is magnificent and now has over twice the capacity – perfect for those long, hot summer days (hm, seems far off at the moment).  With a some ingenuity, some head scratching and a little swearing the rad was refitted, refilled and the winch roared into life – though sadly without a glider on the end of a wire.  A huge thank you to Colin for organising the rebuild and refit (and all the running around it entailed.  Thanks too to Ken H, Alan S and Dennis G for rolling their sleeves up and getting their hands dirty.

Looks like February is determined to continue its track record so fingers crossed for lots of flying in March.

After a run of non-flying Wednesdays the day started optimistically and the toys were pulled out.  By the time 2 gliders were at the launch point (south end) we decided to hold fire on taking the 3rd glider down.  The cloud had come down – well, not exactly “base” as it was more of a graduated murk.  Lunch was declared in the hope the promised brightening would occur.  This week sausage rolls and lemon drizzle cake were on offer.

Lunch over but no change outside so it was time to everything away.  Easiest way to get gliders and cables back was to do hangar lobs.  Stan took the K8 and I attended to the “new” Puchacz.  That launch confirmed the decision to scrub.

A cold day but with a hazy sun that took the edge off and gave beautiful views.

A healthy flying list kept Nigel and myself busy all day, but not much solo flying was had. A notable exception was Graham who flew his Libelle for the first time. Anyone who’s flown one knows the question of whether he liked it is superfluous…

 

A very lovely day to be gliding.

 

-2C and a hard frost so out came the Ozees and other warm clothing.  Also, out came the Swallow.

With the bright sunshine and hardly any wind it wasn’t long before layers were shed.  Paul P went to launch but was so hot the canopy misted up.  Layer removed a second attempt was made – same result.  After further removal of clothing he launched successfully.

With no wind and no thermals the longest flight anyone could manage, from 25 launches, was 9 minutes (Rob J in the K8 and Alan P in his Swallow).