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Another Bank Holiday with good weather – the weather system really does seem to have broken down.  I arrived at the airfield at 9:00 to find it had been Bessented – winch and caravan set-up and B1 rigged awaiting it’s master’s return from work.  Lots of fluffy white things in the sky looking like it was probably already working up there.  Turned out it wasn’t as easy to get away as it looked with about a third of the launches just doing circuits.  Even with that miss rate the average flight time was 52 minutes (Jim C’s 4:04 and Alan H’s 4:00 making significant contributions the average).  Over at the Gibbet there were more multi-coloured duvets floating about than I can ever remember seeing there.  More than one pilot returned with tales of running through sink to a tasty looking cloud only to find it occupied by some of these duvets having escaped from the ridge – well that was their excuse for not getting away.  Lots of gliders passing through too.  One failed to pass and arrived downwind and down hill (turbo tucked away).  Guess they do things differently at Lasham.
Peter E was kept busy with winching for the first hour and then flying a TL and a half day course.  I spent over three and a half hours in the back seat.  33 launches, 23 folks flew and clocked up almost 29 hours of flying. 

I wasn’t able to join “the boys” this week but it wasn’t much of a soaring day.  From looking at the logs I see that Paul P early on (2nd launch) set the standard to beat on the first launch with 19 minutes.  It wasn’t until two and a half hours later (and a dozen launches) that this was bettered by Bill C with 29 minutes and  a couple of launches later Alan H pipped Bill by a couple of minutes.  Paul P then played a tactical game and regained his crown on the last launch with 32 minutes.

..Phil the Parachute Packer (how did Pete miss this alliteration opportunity) appeared after flying to make sure we know how to put on our parachutes correctly.  Sounds easy – hm.  Get it wrong and descend lopsided (resulting in the turning) or fall out of the harness (result somewhat more uncomfortable).  Many thanks to Phil.
The airfield was sporting its first haircut of the year (well, partial haircut) which resulted in an unexpected problem.  After landing and coming swiftly to a standstill, Paul P checked the wheel box to find it bunged up.  Poking around with a screw driver had little effect so the wheel was taken out and this is what was found (the grass, not Nigel or Colin’s legs).

Saturday started bright and ended bright. In the middle it was less bright. During the less bright part it was occasionally brighter than the times when it was most least bright. (Claire pour me another glass…)

During the first period of brightness Jim and the ls3 lot decided to rig and Alan brought his skylark out the hangar, so what is it about our hangar at the moment we have skylarks but no swifts or are they swallows and a kestrel in the wol box! Anyway because they had rigged in the bright bit when it got less bright they could take off and soar under the clouds causing the lack of bright. Jim managed to stay away from the most least bright parts and soar for 2 1/2 hours with a wander around but not much sense of cross country. Alan managed to injure his Skylark and so more of his favourite pastime of glider fixing awaits him.

Steve the Soaring Statistician (is that alliteration or does the definitive article prevent that? However Polish and Russian do not use articles so it works nicely as “Steve Statystyk Szybownictwo” or “Стив статистик Скользя”) reports:

30 launches and 10:22 flown. 

Longest flight – Jim 2:29

4 other flights of over 50 minutes

14 folks flew

Highest flown that I heard was Richard to 3,700

Sometimes the wind is confused, sometimes Jim is confused.

Alliteration allows “Peter Piper Picked a Peck of Pickled Peppers” so I think articles are allowed, but then if we are pickling peppers then we might as well be Polish anyway.