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Despite losing most of the morning waiting for the mist to burn away a great day was eventually had by all.

We made the most of not having any single seaters out and made good use of the Puchacz and K13’s. Not a great day for staying up but many extended soaring flights were there to be had. Alan Pettit in the Skylark clocked up a credible 30 mins or so mostly not above 900ft!

Congratulations to Jon Garner for convincing Carol to sign him “Off Checks”……well done!

Not sure how many flights were flown as I did not see the log but Carol and I were certainly kept busy, what a cracking day!

Phil

Well, as expected it was not quite the ideal soaring day today. Indeed when I arrived and unlocked the field gate, I wasn’t sure if I would get up the field , there being quite a lot of surface water around (understatement!!). But get up ok I did, and was sat there planning a flight for myself (Snowdon O/R – my plan for the first nice day this spring – 569K) when fellow E teamer Graham arrived with a Landrover (Chris was away on duty team at his granddaughter’s birthday party). This was a great relief in case of problems going back down the field.

As I said, if we can’t fly we can plan, and Graham and I worked on his training plan so he now has a clearer idea of what progress he can reasonably expect to make through the summer, and how best to twist the arms of the duty instructor to make sure it happens!

For those who are in training, days like these are an excellent opportunity to ask questions that get lost on days when your head is full of flying. Make a list, pin the DI down and get him/her to explain things you’re not sure about. Then you will make the best progress come the flying days.

For those who are post solo but who haven’t yet made the ranks of World Champions, days like these are an excellent opportunity to make a plan for the season.

This morning Graham and I talked through things in 3 headings which you might find useful to make progress:
> badges / distances/measurable achievements – eg I want to do my XC endorsement, get my 5hours, fly my first rated comp, fly faster XC, do my 500k, do over 100hrs flying, become an instructor
> technical – eg I want to get all my post-solo development card items crossed off, improve my circuits, work on speed control in thermals, improve turnpoint technique, learn to fly the energy lines, learn to fly blue conditions
> fun – eg I want to ditch the geezer in the back seat, fly with buzzards, do task week, do someone else’s task week/comp, fly Snowdon O/R, fly a 750km, nab a ride in a hot 2-seater, fly and land somewhere for coffee then fly home.
>>Of course, all three categories overlap!

The other person on the airfield, Graham’s dog Bunny, was to be honest pretty unimpressed with many of my suggestions. In the end she was very glad that Graham finally came to understand that the real purpose of his being there was to take her for a walk. Which he did, just as the rain turned to snow and the field vanished in a blizzard. I slithered gently back down the field to solid tarmac, went home and made soup.

Not a promising start to a new month with rain over the airfield in the morning.  However, those few who had looked at (and believed) the forecast were rewarded in the afternoon.  Behind the band of rain there was brighter weather, even if there was also plenty of wind – a day for lot of height and lots of speed on finals.  Above Ham at, what will be, our Olympic ceiling I spied the Janus being tempted on-line.  After a couple of circuits the Janus boys claimed they had only wanted to complete their ARC by checking deflections.  One grotty band of rain passed to the north but the next lot got us.  Once that passed the wind swung further south adding about 300′ to the launches.
On a day that could so easily have been missed 10 folks (between them) got 15 launches and over 2 hours of fun flying.

Not everyone was convinced by the new back seat technique

What a cracking day. 4 club gliders being kept busy plus the LS3 and LS7 rigged.  Stonking – provided you were in the right place at the right time. 4 flights of over and hour (sorry Steve you Wednesday record was short lived – Colin flew the LS3 for 1:35 today) and another 5 of over 30 minutes.  When Pete S had to rely on his third (free) launch to get away you know it took more than just skill.  Climb rates of 5.6 (on the averager) and climbs up to 4,000′ QFE were available – so you can now kick yourself for not getting along to partake.  A Duo Discuss from L was seen over the gibet being outclimbed by one of our members (I suspect that might provoke a response from Liz about L folks doing cross-countries).

It was good to see Evelyn return after her hibernation having being distracted from flying by things like getting married.  Just as gliders were being launched for hangar landing our first TL of 2012 appeared.

Thanks Bob for arranging such good weather for your duty day.