Wednesday 20th October 2010

A slick start to the day - but the light crosswind swung from N to NW earlier than expected so we decided to change ends, rather than slog on with poor launches and long landings.

Lovely autumn weather with a couple of showers, and a marked drop in temperature whenever the sun was obscured by cumulus clouds. Thermals were a bit elusive - but Richard Morgan did well to achieve 28 minutes in DMX while I admired the scenery from the back seat. Richard and Chris Fagg, along with Mike Keller (who flew with Ged) benefited from several flights apiece, and it is great to see how their skills (and confidence) are improving. One of our temporary members, Ray Newman, also made a return visit and flew, leaving with a smile on his face.

Brentor always has some surprises up its windsock, and Wednesday was no exception. After a day with lacklustre lift, Phil Hardwick in the Astir suddenly found himself being propelled up to 2,800 ft by a strong thermal, then spent an hour exploring the skies - probably in some sort of wave effect. An envious group of onlookers watched his every move, and congratulated him on crossing this latest hurdle towards his cross country endorsement.

Phil returns to the airfield after his 1 hour flight in his new Astir. Picture by syndicate partner Andrew

Finally, two other bits of good news. Firstly it's nice to have Dave Bourchier back with us (Thanks, Dave, for all your launch point controlling efforts yesterday - and ditto to our winching/cable retrieving team of Dave, Barry and Heather) and, second, we were all relieved to see that Don's machine had recovered from its recent bout of 'bovine excess'. It is now protected by an electric fence!

Bob Pirie