Wednesday 7th December 2011

An ever-hopeful team of enthusiasts gathered around a roaring fire, while outside the rain teemed down on a sodden airfield - parts of which now resemble a WW1 battlefield. However, the forecasters were good to their word, and in most un-Wednesdaylike fashion, the weather actually improved, with only occasional further showers, but this coincided with an increase in the strength and gustiness of the NW wind.

With the aircraft and equipment already DI'd, at the first hint of an improvement we hitched up K13 DMX to the quad bike and hauled just the one glider to the east end of the field, setting up shop on the dry 'high spot' beside the launch caravan, and agreeing to confine landings as much as possible to the small 'tennis court'-like strip to the south of the centre track. The potential downside of overshooting, undershooting or failing to cope with the crosswind and thus ending up in a boggy part of the field inspired everyone to land with amazing accuracy, and most of the time we avoided having to tow the glider by attaching the cable for the next launch where the glider had stopped.

Robin Wilson stands by to help launch John Howe and Bob Pirie.

Steve Lewis scrutinises a muddy strop for a hint of colour coding.

Thanks to Dave Rippon and Jeff Craggs - and John Howe and Robin Wilson who did their stint later in the day - for providing some excellent launches (the majority to 1,400-1,500 feet). Meanwhile those at the receiving end responded well, with only one cable parachute dropped over the fence during a total of 16 launches. Flying-wise, the emphasis was on honing our skills in the challenging conditions, rather than simply keeping just-about-current with a benign potter around the circuit. The generous launch heights gave everyone an opportunity to work at revising their spin recovery skills with either me, or my fellow-instructor Ged, and the strong and increasingly gusty crosswind enabled us to carry out some quite interesting circuit and approach exercises as well.

John Bolt, Bob Jones and Steve Lewis bask in the comfort of the launchpoint control caravan.

But the day wasn't all about hard work, and just to remind us what the skies around Brentor are really all about, with rain showers all around us, Robin Wilson connected with a strong thermal and wound the glider up in a gap between the lower level clouds to the ultimate cloudbase at 2,000 ft.

Unusual place for daily prayers Phil

Phil Hardwick and Robin Wilson wash down the K13 at the end of a muddy day.

With the current weather conditions, maintaining the airfield can be a thankless task for our Airfield Maintenance team, led by Phil Hardwick, who has been very wisely seeking advice from some of our 'old hands' – especially life member and ex chairman, Phil Jarman who, while he is no longer a regular visitor, is a useful source of information on the original building of the club. Today’s subject was the position and type of the original land drains.  During the day Ged took delivery of a lorry load of stone chippings supplied by Phil J., meanwhile Phil H. spent most of his time trying, unsuccessfully, to breath life into the digger, to enable hole-filling to get underway.

'Trailer for sale or rent'. Jeff Craggs relaxes after a heavy day's winching and spinning.

Bob Pirie