Category: Flying Reports

Bank Holidays can be days when hardly anyone appears to fly, but not this one.  20 people turned out and flew, including   Duty instructor was Tim R and with help from 3 other instructors managed to keep all 3 club 2-seaters busy.  Alan P rigged his Skylark and offered flights in it to a couple of other solo pilots which helped reduce the demand for the club gliders.  Alan H rigged his ASW15 and, somewhat optimistic, declared a 5 hour attempt.  At the top of the launch he heard a noise which turn out to be a crack extending in his canopy.  He landed, 4 hours 53 minutes short of his target.

Mostly only circuits were on offer but about a quarter of them enjoyed some soaring.  Most notable were the first launch of the day (Jeremy K with Tim R) of 47 minutes and the last one (Selvam) of 58 minutes.

I guess folks had been taking notice of the weather forecast as there was quite a modest turnout. Well I hoped they enjoyed their shopping or domestic chores while some of us took advantage of a first rate cloud streets. A leisurely start to the day waiting for the weather to improve. With limited numbers of members in attendance we just pulled out the Puchacz and one of the K13’s.

On the second launch Charles McC demonstrated scratching skills to stretch the flight to 14 minutes. A few launches later Peter E gave our Trial Lesson visitor a 22 minute flight with a view of his house at the bottom of the hill in Rivar.  Mark P needed to complete his annual checks, after the customary simulated launch failure we took a second launch and Mark climbed to cloud base at 3,000′, pointed the Puchacz into wind and slowly made our way to Pewsey (gaining 100′ at one point without turning).  Steve B launched of in a K13 and similarly followed the street to Pewsey.  It was Mark who took longest flight honours with 45 minutes, narrowly beating Steve by 2 minutes.

A modest 16 launches but an enjoyable day for the few of us there.