Wednesday 26th October 2011

The field was probably as soggy as I've ever seen it and with only a light crosswind, launch heights were modest. However, the sun shone and for most of the day the showers (and sadly most of the potentially productive cumulus clouds) managed to avoid us.

Pilot-wise, we had a good turnout (but there's always room for more!), with Richard Clarke and Steve Raine furthering their pre-solo skills in BVB with Ged and myself, and Tony Thorne clearly enjoying his first flights in a two-seater after being earthbound for the last couple of years. There were also several solo pilots on hand competing in an Astir and two K8s to achieve the longest flight - which looked like being a paltry ten minutes or so. But then during the late afternoon, after making a generous contribution to the club's coffers with several launches in the Astir, Phil the Farmer grabbed the only really useable lift of the day and clocked up a couple of good climbs and 48 minutes. Tony and I tried to catch him during a 20 minute flight in BVB - but Phil was clearly 'on a roll'.

As usual, lots of good things were happening on the ground, with Jeff Craggs and John Howe driving the winch. Jeff was supervised by Steve Lewis and then Bob Jones and ended the day by being signed off as our latest fully qualified winch driver. Congratulations, Jeff!

Back in the hangar Chris Kaminski continued with fettling and streamlining the Zugvogel, until Bob Jones arrived hauling the trailer carrying K13 DMX's fuselage, which had had some welding work done at Dunkeswell. But then eagle-eyed Chris spotted a small area where further welding work was needed - so back the fuselage went, this time behind CFI Don's car.

With brand new cables on both winches, cable breaks are currently rare. However we seem once again to be having a 'run' on broken blue weak links and lost strops. Consequently the dying hours of the afternoon saw Chairman Steve and Vice Chairman Ged armed with saws and up a slippery tree retrieving a cable parachute assembly. Meanwhile the Duty Instructor found himself foraging badger-like through the bowels of a gorse thicket on a strop-hunt (finding three blue ones in the process). Yet again we ask all pilots please to 'aim off' in crosswinds, to resist the urge to 'pole bend' and, of you do break a weak link, to make an effort to find the strop after you have landed.

Finally, a word about our instructor team. With a smile on his face and a glint in his eye, Don told me that with four more having been categorised in recent weeks, we now have 10 rostered instructors in total, which is well on the way to achieving his 'dream team' of 16. So here's hoping for a good turnout at the instructors' meeting he's arranged for this Saturday.

Bob Pirie

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