As Pete mentioned earlier, well done to Steve Gaze for converting to the Sport Vega, hope you have as much fun flying it as the rest of us do!
Phil
Keesh and sunny sunday 25th march
So why would anyone bring quiche for a BBQ? “No! More meat!” I protested but Claire was adamant. “How am i supposed to burn, err cook that?” I protested, but to scant avail. And that is how everyone came to enjoy quiche with the first club BBQ of the year. In GMT no less.
The next day dawned a little later, but was it time to get up? I had no idea if the alarm clock, phone, computer etc updated automatically or whether I was supposed to press and wind things. Finally, having decided it was time, I set off for a sunny and pleasantly warm day at the airfield with a promise to myself to visit Chris’ shop for some proper timekeeping equipment!
Fresh from repairing the structural rendering on the clubhouse Steve Gaze jumped into the Vega for a type conversion.
Meanwhile the CFI was in a daze, due to the early hour I think, he had managed to rig enough seats for three of him (I’ll leave the comments to you guys here) and was busy contemplating which one to try first. He did manage to make the choice and once the temp had risen he managed to soar in all of them.
In a spectacular timing miss (I think he was still in Olly era double summer time) Alan managed to fly whilst it wasn’t soarable and then derig during the soaring window which lasted for a couple of hours from about 3 – oops.
Saturday 24th – Summer starts a day early
It may have been the day before the clocks “spring forward” for summer but the weather was more like June than March. Last Sunday I was glad I had my Ozee suit, this week it was shirt sleeves suntan cream. With the established high pressure came the more stable air, the inversion and the murk.
The day started with a slow launch rate but with only a few members in the morning and only circuits on offer that was hardly surprising. There were some scraps of lift on offer but it wasn’t until 1:30 that anyone stayed airborne for that bit longer (Jim C in the Puchacz for 23 mins). Following Jim there were a number of flights around half an hour and a couple of over an hour. One of those being my flight in EEFy in which I got to 4,750 and took a wander to Hungerford and Newbury. Jon G was a happy bunny having got his second bronze leg and we have a new junior member (Helen, who took a TL a couple of weeks ago). Helen has the same initials as the Puchacz’s trigraph so I guess it was meant to be that she should join us at Shalbourne.
The day was rounded off with a BBQ organised by Pete and Claire.
Sunday 18th March
A steady day with only limited soaring on offer. Rob J set the time to beat on the 4th launch with 21 minutes. That wasn’t beaten until later on with a 36 minute flight by, guess who, yup Rob again. Grabbing as many launches as were on offer was Mark P, returning to the club after his 2+ year “rest”. He hasn’t forgotten how to fly 🙂 Richard (DI thanks to a 2 way swap) was kept occupied with a couple of TLs one of whom was particularly keen, heading off with the plan to buy a book and return in 2 weeks time. 23 launches with a modest 4:13 hours flown.