Monday 2nd May 2011

A 25 knot easterly breeze greeted the hardy and brave [dare I say foolhardy] few that turned out to aviate this Bank Holiday Monday.

As our illustrious CFI pondered the heavens, Will Wilson and myself hauled DMX to the launch point, Nigel Williamson set up the winch and we all wondered what trials awaited us. As all of us are pre-bronze, dual flights were order of the day as conditions were going to be testing to say the least. They weren't going to disappoint!

A wave bar over the runway to tempt any glider pilot.

After 2000 foot launches suitable wave [and a weak thermal or two] were found and much valuable experience in soaring was undertaken. Will was unlucky to find some bad sink and landed after 23 minutes but Nigel and I were a little luckier managing to stay airborne for just under an hour each reaching heights of around 3000 feet.

On my flight, a lesson in loosing height rapidly involving a spin followed by an 80 knot dive with full airbrake brought us down to a suitable height to start our approach. Starting at a thousand feet and with 65 knots ASI to get down through the wind gradient, it left me wondering, 'Who needs Alton Towers?'

Once again Trevor Taylor showed us whipper-snappers how to do it by flying the Jantar for an hour and a half and reaching 6000 feet [he could have stayed up for longer and gone higher he tells us] while his young grandson amused himself by flying the simulator, another budding young pilot in the making.

Many thanks to Don keeping the airfield open while North Hill, Culdrose and Aston didn't fly at all. We certainly were 'The Few' today.

Darren Wills