A sodden airfield, combined with persistent low cloud and frequent showers, seemed to deter our pre-solo pilots from putting in an appearance today, and sadly prevented those of us who did turn up from putting the newly-refurbished K8 through its paces.
Therefore, apart from some occasional 'simulator action', the focus was on supporting Andrew Beaumont's commendable efforts to refit the interior of the Pirat trailer. This involved de-rigging the glider... 'offering up' the centre section, wing outer sections, fuselage and tailplane to the trailer... making adjustments to the fittings... and then re-rigging the glider ready for it to be flown this coming weekend.
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Andrew, Chris and Ged get technical |
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The 'Pirats' of Brentor (or 'How many members does it take to insert a Pirat into its trailer?') |
While the above was happening, Phil (accompanied by my nine-year-old grandson, Freddie ) spent most of the day in the tractor mowing the whole airfield, while John Bolt continued to apply his expertise to progressing the repairs to the Zugvogel.
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| Farmer Phil and Freddie |
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John Bolt welcomes some help from Chairman Steve in fixing the Zug |
Just as we were packing the kit away and a further deterioration in the weather set in, a roar of ancient machinery was heard from southwest. Initially, I attributed this to the club's tractor, which earlier in the day had suffered from silencer failure. But then - out of the murk - appeared the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight's Lancaster bomber, en route at low level from the RNAS Culdrose Air Day to its home base at RAF Coningsby, Lincolnshire. A stirring sight indeed, which emptied the clubhouse and saw both the Chairman and Secretary jumping up and down and waving enthusiastically at this most welcome invader of Brentor airspace. (Shortly afterwards some members of the public who live locally appeared enquiring if it had had a problem and landed at Brentor!)
Finally, a word of thanks to those of you who have made grandson Freddie so welcome, both today and two years ago when he took his first glider flight with me at Brentor. The gliding addiction in my family may be about to skip a generation, but if his enthusiasm and natural aptitude are anything to go by, it won't be many years before his name starts appearing on the flying list. (But his nearest gliding club is Booker.)
Bob Pirie
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