Wednesday 11th January 2012

Fog on the north coast and low cloud both to the north and south of the site, but at sunny Brentor, the few club members who turned up were rewarded with clear skies the whole day, coupled with a light SW breeze.

Operating from a relatively dry area near the eastern boundary gave us maximum launch runs, with heights of up to1,400 feet. Moreover launch speeds were enhanced by the club’s first-ever use of the Skylaunch Launch Assistant, introduced on a trial basis by our winch master, Alan Ballard.

Skylaunch  Launch Assistant on it's temporary mounting in the winch 

This electronic system relies on a transmitter in the glider (today we were using K7/13 ‘BVB’) continuously feeding glider launch speed data to a base station, with digital readout, mounted in the winch. The results were very encouraging, with optimum launch speeds achieved most of the time. As an added bonus, we were using the Guslaunch winch with two new cables, which meant that the only launch failures were of the simulated variety
.

This group are getting good at handling gliders on very soft airfields.

The small band of pilots who have been turning up regularly on winter Wednesdays regardless of the weather to stay current were rewarded with solo flights - albeit in the two-seater - and Mike Keller, back recently after a bit of a layoff from flying, joined their ranks after a couple of refresher flights.

It was good to have Shrek back with us after a few months away in Poland, with Ged putting him through his paces on his way toward that first solo milestone.

Steve Raine (left) contemplates his first solo with instructor Bob Pirie

But the best news last! Throughout the autumn and winter, one of our newest club members, Steve Raine, has been attending regularly to fly, to undertake ground training (including flying the simulator) and to muck-in with the chores along with the rest of the team. Today his determination was rewarded with two successful solo flights, culminating in elegant ‘arrivals’ on the relatively small dry area of the airfield which we were using as our preferred landing area. (Steve’s rapid progress must be partly attributable to gliding and fixed-wing training he undertook many years ago - firstly as an ATC cadet and then in the Army.) Congratulations, Steve!

And both are still smiling after the event.

Bob Pirie