A pleasant day, with some decent thermals until mid-afternoon, before over development occurred. But where was everyone? I know some people were on holiday, or completing their instructors' course - and of course there was distraction of the World Cup - but apart from that, I am sure there are a number of solo pilots and trainees who could have had a rewarding day's flying had they been at Brentor.
It was good to have our usual team of Wednesday stalwarts there - and we were pleased to welcome back a number of temporary members taking advantage of their three months' membership. Well done Colin Boyd especially for making them welcome and for briefing them so thoroughly. Our 'fixed price to solo' member Richard Morgan had a couple of soaring flights. His training is progressing well and it's good to see him involving himself in all the ground activities too.
The fact that there were so few experienced members around put a bit of a strain on our operational capability (and curtailed their own flying to a certain extent), and things were not helped by the ML winch and grey Land Rover Discovery being unserviceable. Then, later in the day, the Guslaunch winch developed a brake problem. Our stalwart 'winchies' Dave Rippon and John Howe, advised by Alan Holland, managed to work their way round this, so we weren't delayed for too long.
Better news as far as our gliders are concerned. Following all Martin Smith's hard work at removing excess weight from cockpit of the K8 (and thus enabling heavier pilots to fly it) which was supervised by John Bolt, I test flew the glider including stalling and spinning it and it gave me no unpleasant surprises. However, with my usual 'trim lever forward' setting for at the start of the launch, the aircraft tried to rotate into the climb more steeply than before, requiring both forward stick and a further trim adjustment. All pilots should be prepared for this and, I suggest, start their first flight with the trim well forward until they get the feel for the aircraft.
With the K8 C of A'd and on-line, the day ended with the K6 being de-rigged ready for C of A inspection today.
Bob Pirie
Ged Nevisky and David Jesty continued their instructor training at North Hill. Thanks to our friends at Dorset & Somerset we were able to make significant progress and Ged and David are almost ready to start instructing.
Don
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