Saturday 23rd July 2011

Forecast looked good for today,  NW winds light increasing to moderate NNW later, sunny intervals, 20 Centigrade.

The day started with the K8 being test flown by CFI Don who promptly took it to 3000ft and back and then released it back into club service.

The early soaring was difficult with no real cores to the thermals but by early afternoon the thermals had become much more organised with cloud streets as far as you could see. A glider pilot's sky.

So did people take advantage of the conditions? Judge for yourself. 16 year old Simon Thornton completed a Bronze and Cross Country leg with a flight of well over an hour, as did somewhat older pilots Jeff Cragg and Will Wilson. Fellow 16 year old Matthew Wiles managed a Cross Country leg with a flight well in excess of 2 hours. The wooden spoon probably belongs to Alan Carter who landed 1 hour 32 minutes into a 2 hour attempt - better luck next time. Everyone had some soaring and a good time.

Matthew took this picture of the K13 from his SF27 while turning at 3000ft - talk about  multitasking

DCFI Mark Courtney was instructor in charge today and he was kept busy all day. He was joined by visiting instructor Simon Leeson who arrived from North Hill in the beautifully kept Rotax Faulke. Visiting BI Mike Sloggitt had a site familiarisation flight with Don and then promptly flew our trial lessons in the K13. Many thanks to all of you and you are welcome back anytime.

Steve