The sodden state of the airfield is apparently as bad as anyone can remember, and many weeks of constant erosion have caused the hardened access tracks to take on the characteristics of rocky trout streams. What's more, practically the whole glider fleet is off-line temporarily for upgrading or winter maintenance.
Given the above circumstances and today's intermittent showers, one might have expected the hangar doors to have remained closed and maybe a handful of pilots huddled around the woodburner 'setting the world to rights' after all the Christmas and New Year festivities.
But not a bit of it! When I rolled in through the gate, my fellow-instructor Ged and a handful of would-be flyers were already at the launch point with BVB, while Martin Smith and Steve Lewis (later joined by Karon Matten and Bob Jones) were hard at work progressing the fleet renovations. However, not all important achievements happen on flying days, and our spirits (and launch heights!) were raised by the fact that the 'winch fairies' had been at work during the week, extracting the Guslaunch winch (complete with new cables) from the swamp at the east end of the field. Thus with a strong westerly wind, combined with some accomplished driving by Dave Rippon and Phil Hardwick, we were able to achieve launch heights of up to 1,500 feet. Meanwhile the ML winch sat there 'in disgrace' while our resident metallurgists pondered the reason for its two nearly-new cables becoming knackered after just a few weeks of use.
The small cadre of DGS pilots and trainees who turn up regularly to fly on Wednesdays and weekends are arguably among the most 'current' in the country - yet there's always room for improvement, and it was encouraging to see how positive they were about the introduction of regular Standardisation Flights for all pilots, announced by CFI Don on 2nd January.
Spinning and launch failure-related exercises are key features of the programme, and today's generous launch heights resulted in everyone making inroads into the former - although the state of the airfield cramped our style as far as simulated launch failures were concerned. And as for 'real ones' - the new cables didn't let us down.
I'm sure Ged and all the other instructors will join me in saying how encouraging it is to have such a healthy turnout of 'regulars' on both flying and non-flying days. If you're not one of that group - and winter's getting you down - come along and let the Standardisation programme helped to blow the cobwebs away. You'll start the season with more enthusiasm and confidence - and as a safer and more current pilot than you are today.
Bob Pirie
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