Wednesday had it all – ridge, thermals and wave. The fact the wave was seen in the distance and the thermals interfered with the ridge just meant the lift could not be taken for granted and one had to work at it. Four club gliders in operation and at times an empty launch point. The Vega blinked as it emerged from the hangar for the first time this year. Only 3 launches taken in it but it did clock up 99 minutes of flying time. Honours for longest flight of the day (and for 2012) went to Steve B with 48 minutes. 12 members flew and we did 22 launches. JMX was rigged and JPC derigged and into the workshop.
Saturday 11th Feb
Just a nice day to be out enjoying the sun and the banter. No soaring on offer but just good to get one’s bum off the ground after so many non-flying days. The wind was forecast to go from East to South to North during the day – but there was so little of it that it made not a jot of difference. A good day for check flights too and spot landing with no wind to help. Comment was made whilst observing the K8 landing approach “you’d think Bob would be able to fly straight with all the experience he has”. After that most K8 pilots appeared to take the opportunity to practice side-slip approaches. The winch driver gave a nicely timed (requested) launch failure which Chris K took in his stride and did a well judged reciprocal landing back to the launch point. James W when asked to demonstrate a spin and recovery showed off with a left spin off a right turn.
23 launches with Bob B being the only one to make double digit flight time (just).
The following picture was taken by Bob B of a blue glider on a blue day
Granddad Phil!
Congratulation to Phil who became a granddad on Monday! You old git!
Wave flying.
I posted a link to this on GPN a little while ago, Steve B spotted it and promptly told me off for not posting it to the blog.
Well worth a read if you’ve ever been wave flying, or ever intend to, albeit you may not want to after reading….