After two weeks of wind and rain we get a great day – and at the weekend! Launches to 2,000+’ and 4 knotters to almost 3,000′. Flights of over an hour were available for the taking. JPC came out to play for the first time sporting its newly covered wings and was much admired. I was kept busy with check flights and Ken P pitched in with test flying JPC and a visitor who immediately joined the club after his 42 minute flight. We also welcomed Allison and Geoff as refuges from Bicester where a soggy airfield stopped play. Being at the top of a ridge, having 100′ difference between field ends and well drained soil certainly has its advantages at the moment. Steve T took the last launch at 2 minutes to sunset and was reminded of the need to land before half an hour after sunset. Maybe he misunderstood as he managed to land before sunset – mind that probably had more to do with one of those launch failures we practice for. At least that got Steve another entry on his post solo progress card signed off.
39 launches in total and 10:42 of flying time. 22 people flew. A cracking day.
Sunday 2nd Feb
Busy day for the time of year with 27 launches and just a K13 and the Puchacz flying (a touch breezy for the K8). It wasn’t until launch 16 that the challenge of a double digit flight was achieved, by Colin (11 minutes) but his victory was short lived when Carol landed a few minutes later having clocked up 12 minutes. It was then back to single digits flights until I took a 1,900′ launch in the K13 and thought I might be in with a chance. Unfortunately, I descended relentlessly to 800′. Fortunately there was some very weak lift that should help delay the circuit for a couple of turns. That weak lift improved and took me to 1,400 before it disappeared (er, was lost). That was enough to take longest flight honours with 21 minutes.
Rest of January
Distinct lack of entries for the second half of January and there are people out there interested to hear (OK, well, one person had noticed).
Sunday the 19th was reasonably busy with 22 launches. Justin was the first break the single digit flight time (14 minutes), immediately followed by Carol+Claire and Paul P. Half an hour later Trevor G stepped up to that challenge and took the Puchacz soaring for a remarkable 38 minutes. Alan P brought out his Skylark for a little exercise.
The mid-week flyers clocked up 15 launches on Tuesday 22nd with longest flight honours going to Rob J with a modest 9 minutes.
Modest turnout the following Saturday (25th) even though it was clear Sunday would be a wash-out/blow-out, just 9 launches. Double digit flights (10 and 11 minutes) were achieved by those who flew with Jim C in the back seat. There were almost as many folks glider/trailer fettling. I was one such and about midday someone pointed out that someone had painted a K13 on the sky. It wasn’t moving forwards or backwards or up or down – Nigel B just hung about for 29 minutes.
Despite all the wind and rain we flew on 7 days in the month (8 is the average and 10 the best) and did about the same amount of flying as 2 years ago (which was much better than last year. December was the surprise – highest number of launches and flying time for 7 years (stats further back not readily to hand). Kinda balanced off October which was the worst for 7 years.
Tuesday 14th January
What do you call the man who flew the Ka8 for the first time, practiced stalls and use of air brakes and still stayed airborne 30% longer than anyone else?
I know what I called him, but you know him as Darren McKillop.