Saturday 3rd December 2011

Yet another wet day – very frustrating when the television weatherman was taking about parts of the country suffering from a drought. Perhaps we could sell them our surplus water ??

There were lots of members on the airfield, all keen to help. The early job was to clear the stones and mud, which has washed down the track, from the hangar apron. Along with this, the drainage channels were cleared out along the track to try and stop a repeat. Good thinking. After completing their task, this crew decided to hunt through the fields adjacent to the runway for strops. They returned a good while later with the spoils of their search which will be recycled and reused to make up new strops.

Clearing the hangar apron to let the K8 out of the hangar.

Meanwhile, Ged was up to his elbows in diesel and oil, fixing one of the generators. I suspect that he secretly likes doing oily jobs. Rick spent his time working with Chris on the phone system and broadband connection which has been somewhat "flaky" recently. This appeared to be was working very well by the end of the day.

The technical crew spent most of the day working on the Pirat adjusting the new aileron cables and fitting the new control stick. The Pirat is putting up a good fight trying to resist it’s upgrading but I think the technicians are winning.

How many gliders pilots does it take to ----- work on a Pirat?

At a particularly frustrating juncture in the Pirat “battle”, Martin and Chris took a break and, by way of light relief, fitted the new DGS branding to the nose of the Zugvogel. Very smart.

The Zugvogel now sports new corporate branding - very smart.

During a coffee break, junior pilot Matthew, encouraged by a group of  "experts ?", flew the simulator from Brentor to Northhill completing the trip in 28 minutes, a new club record.

Thanks everyone for your efforts. I am sure that it cannot continue raining for much longer. ( I hope ).

Steve