Wednesday 17th March 2011

A productive and uneventful day at the operational end of the airfield... A partly-productive - but rather more eventful day at the other end - which I'll come to later!

Warm sunshine, spiced-up by a moderate crosswind, enabled us to start discarding layers of winter clothing early on - and even more layers because of all the pushing and shoving involved because several members were absent and one of our retrieve vehicles was off-line temporarily. It was a pleasant day for training and polishing solo flying skills. Robin, one of our field treasurers, took advantage of the day and completed his conversion to the Zugvogel. He underlined this on his 2nd flght on type with some satisfying soaring.
 

Robin looks thoughtful as he contemplates his first flight in the Zugvogel

During mid-afternoon we were rewarded with a short 'window' of decent thermals thanks to a sea breeze front which had stayed tantalisingly to the southwest throughout the morning.

But with the thermals, came appalling visibility, causing us to call a halt to flying earlier than usual.

In addition to the club flying, we welcomed a new temporary member Richard Clarke who attended a one-day course, flying with both Ged Nevisky and Dave Jesty.

Instructor Ged Nevisky (left ) with Richard during his one day course.

And what about the non-operational and 'rather more eventful' end of the field?

Well, our CFI Don Puttock arrived and made great inroads into tidying up the clubhouse, hangar and surrounding area ready for Kelly College's headmaster's inspection tomorrow (Thursday 17th), and the main event - the inspection of the CCF by a brigadier - next Thursday.

But from that point, things went dramatically downhill for a while. Despite precautions, Don's bonfire ignited some dry grass, and the blaze spread very quickly to an area of gorse, adjacent to the trailers, tractors, clubhouse and diesel tank. While Don and helpers battled bravely to contain the fire, those of us at the launch point remained oblivious to the seriousness of the situation until the sound of a fire engine siren was heard.

But who was to blame?

Our grateful thanks go to the brave firefighters from Tavistock, who dealt with the blaze quickly, preventing any property damage. Rumour has it that our chairman, Steve Lewis, not only thanked them, but tried to sell them an air experience evening.

Bob Pirie