Category: Flying Reports

Yuck!

Not really much that I can usefully add to that.  Although, it did give Ken H, plus helpers, a chance to re-position and re-plumb the water collection system.

One Swallow doth not a summer make – as is evident from the cover photo.  Very grey, but warm.  Shortly after the photo was taken there was a gathering in the hangar as folks took shelter from a rain shower.  Once we started flying (no one was in a hurry to do so) the grey parted;  sun appeared; it got decidedly hot (especially with the canopy closed) but no useful thermals being triggered.  The sun came and went and returned in time for the trial lesson evening session to enjoy a sunny evening.

All short flights with the notable exceptions of Rob J (51 minutes in the K8) and Denis G (33 minutes in a K13) who managed to take advantage of lift surrounding a rain cell.

Anyone worried about carrying too much ballast should avoid Wednesday – not only were there donuts (thanks as usual to Peter M) but Tony P supplied his legendary brownies plus a new delight – Yorkshire Curd Tart.

Highlight of the day was Andy B taking his first solo in almost 12 years.

Open Days are always a bit of a worry.  Will there be enough members to make it happen, will the weather be OK, will any visitors turn up?  No problems on any of those fronts for this year’s Open Day.  Lots of members providing terrific support and running things so efficiently. Good weather (maybe a bit too good).  Lots of visitors (but not too many) with some we are likely to see again and, hopefully, convert to become members.
After a couple of hours there were still plenty of visitors waiting to fly but because we were able to provide many with the full 15 minute Trial Lesson there were spare cables.  So, we started slotting in single seater flying in the K8 and the Vega plus the LS3-17 and the Olly made an appearance (having been left rigged from the previous day).  Some of the solo pilots were able to enjoy the 4,500′ cloud base.  As the afternoon progressed we cleared the trial lesson backlog and more of the helpers were able to fly.  Unfortunately the sky filled in so their was less opportunity to soar.  Graham T in the Vega “enjoyed” an unusual form of launch failure – the winch ran out of fuel.

At 63 launches we set a new record number of launches on a day – 55 being the previous highest (Open Day 2010).  Well, the most in at least the last 9 years for which records are readily available.  Many moons ago we did do an Open Day on the longest day and achieved just over 100 launches.  Over half of the launches were Trial Lessons.
A huge thank you to all those who made this such a great day by turning up to help and/or promoted the day with posters and on social media.  Inevitably there were a few who deserve special mention.  Rod H for winching almost all of the day (no surprises there); Ken H spending most of the day on the gate greeting and directing traffic; Alan P for providing food from the BBQ giving many of the hard working members a boost; Claire for being a superb “front of house” selling and organising sales with only one wee break through the day.

One of our visitors works for McLaren Automotive and a few of our instructors got a chance to go in his car as P2.

Toys packed away Chris B provided the end of day entertainment of “find the key”.  Claire was the winner having decided to ignore the searching of the grass in favour of search the car (thank goodness there was a sensible woman on the airfield otherwise we blokes would still be looking now).