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A great days gliding in september…

Firstly congratulation to Nigel Burt on his 90km silver distance flight to the seaside (Parham) in EGF, thanks also to Colin and Alan S for retriving.
I met up with a friend above Sandhill Farm and we flew to Basingstoke and back to Sandhill where he flew back to Nympsfield and I flew back home. Carol and Phil in the Janus flew away from the good conditions in the south to Bicester, where Phil struggled in the poor conditions there, before returning home. The Duo did a couple of 100km laps and pretty much everyone else did some soaring.

We also had the pleasure of Rod’s Swales returning to its home skies.

Also heard on the radio were pilots turning St Catherine’s Point on the Isle of Wight…

The forecast was for cold front passage late morning. So we decided we’d turn up about lunchtime and fly in the afternoon. The few of us who did, plus the Trial Lesson had a flight each. But I guess everyon else decided Sunday was going to be the better day – after all the ridge was building behind the front.

After waiting for the rain to stop we finally got going at 12.30 and despite the lack of useable lift Liz flew one of her friends in JMX for 23 minutes beating the next nearest flight by a whole 13 minutes 🙂

Congratulations to Richard Greenaway who convinced Richard Dann to sign him “off checks”, his manic grin said it all……..well done!

Finally I can’t let the opportunity pass without mentioning the slightly desperate radio call we received from the winch. It seems a gust of wind slammed the door of the winch shut leaving Paul Prentice stuck inside, the tone of his voice as he asked for assistance was priceless!!!!

In the end those who hung on for conditions to improve all had a flight so it well worth the wait.

Phil

Not the most promising of weather but a few people managed extended flights of an hour or more in the afternoon.

Very nice to see a new member, John Turks, who is at the very early stages of learning to fly.