Sunday pic

Here is a pic that Chris took on his short xc in the LS7 when he flew down to top up his psychic energy over Avebury and Silbury Hill…

Sunday 4 Sept

Well, after a wet start to the day it cleared through pretty much as forecast – well, perhaps a little later – to give what eventually became a nice soaring day. I’d swapped with Tim but he, being in need of a few minutes extra instructing for his renewal, was also present and raring to go. Newish member Jim McCormick therefore got to fly until he begged for mercy, after which Alan S got a flip round in the difficult not-quite soarable slot.

Meanwhile Richard and others were flying the Vega, and Chris had rigged the LS7 but I managed to blag it just as it got sensibly soarable again. Messrs Robson and Gavin (oh yes, he’s back!) and I passed each other somewhere towards Marlborough but I felt that I really ought to return B1 and let Chris enjoy the day which was finally brewing up around 3.30pm. On returning I actually managed to get my hands on a TL while Tim took TL returner Evelyn to pack in some follow-up airtime for the second weekend running (clearly someone who should be joining us long term!). Trevor finished the day by ‘hangar flying’ the Puch until he felt in danger of being lynched if he didn’t return, after which we all retired to the George for a beer.

Perfect!

Wednesday 24th August

The day started with Rivar Hill in a big blue hole with no one rushing to take the first flight. Bob B declared that it must be working and took the K8 away for an hour to prove it. Everyone who flew (with one exception) enjoyed at least one soaring flight but had to contend with lumpy air and a lot of drift. Alan H set off to exercise his new XC qualification to get his silver. Having gone to Marlborough and struggled back to Rivar Hill he decided to abandon carrying on to Lasham. Keith J and I had a memorable flight with an excellent view of the crop circle (serpent) near the gibbet and then joined by lots of shinny, big-winged gliders south side of Kintbury. We needed pretty much all the 2,500′ we had to make it back to the airfield.

Sunday 22nd August

Arrived to find the field arready set-up by the insomniacs but we then sat around as no one keen to just fly circuits. With the appearance of the days first TL we started flying. It soon became apparent that the wind hadn’t read the weather forecast so it was change end time. Flights were rather short until 14:00 when Chris B stayed airborne for an hour. All three of our 2-seaters were kept busy with 2 TL’s, 2 half day courses, visitors from Shennington and Uphavon and friends of members. As the day progressed the flying got better, higest climb I heard of was to 4,800. The C team were certainly kept busy.