Wednesday 9th November 2011

Today the late autumn sun stoked up some promising thermals by noon (see photo), inspiring Steve to dash round the Roadford Lake/Launceston/Brentor triangle, but a subsequent attempt by his syndicate partner, Trevor, ended ignominiously in a farmer's field near Launceston.

Booming conditions at Brentor
Only kiddin', folks! Today was even wetter than recent Wednesdays, but this didn't deter a dozen of us from turning up and engaging in a morning of 'strategising', ground and simulator training, plus, of course, the usual line-shooting and tales of derring-do. (Steve and Trevor were, of course, flying the simulator and not the real thing.)

Ten nuts boasting round an open fire...
Despite the rain, fine tuning of the tractors continued, Tony Thorne did a great job washing all the vehicles, and Mike Keller and Steve Raine, having met for the first time, engaged in earnest conversation regarding their days learning to fly military helicopters. We've at least one other ex-chopper pilot, Dick Masters, among our membership, so maybe we should start a 'Ye Olde Rotarians' section of DGS.

Mission accomplished, Tony looks forward to a 'warm-up' in the clubhouse
The cast iron wood burner worked so hard that it warped itself (an unusual occurrence which was confirmed as being possible by our resident metallurgist/field treasurer, David Rippon).
David makes a quick change from gliding garb to more formal attire, before leaving for a meeting in Tavistock
At the end of the day, word reached us from Chris Kaminski that the long-awaited spare parts for the Pirat had arrived, so hopefully we'll have a 'full house' of gliders ready for when the wave arrives - which is bound to happen while I'm on holiday....

Bob Pirie

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