Wednesday 9th May 2012

After last weekend's euphoria, we came down to earth with a splash today - all bit like a fortnight ago really.

In the front of the hangar Phil and Ged tackled 'round two' of their Twin Astir-wrestling competition. Having succeeded in prising out the old release hooks from the nose and belly last time, their challenge for today was to fit two new ones, which taxed their ingenuity and patience even further. Meanwhile back in the clubhouse, Field Treasurers Robin and David busied themselves with crunching the numbers following the Open Day - occasionally demanding small quantities of green ink for their quill pens, which was encouraging!

Steve Lewis and I then delivered some individual briefings on Navigation Exercise preparation and ridge soaring, before the whole team convened for an impromptu Open Day 'washup' discussion to capture thoughts about what went well (i.e. most things) - and what we might consider doing differently or additionally next time around. We recognise that only a handful of us participated in this informal session, so any other members who have observations or ideas should send them in a 'one-on-one' e-mail to our Chairman, Steve Lewis. Steve will then collate them and share them with CFI Don Puttock and the rest of the Committee.

Further evidence of the valuable PR potential offered by our local media arrived today in the form of copies of The Plymouth Herald which carried a two-thirds page spread of our Open Day, including some excellent photos taken by their photographer, Penny Cross. Hopefully there will be coverage in the Tavistock Times tomorrow.

Dartmoor is well known as a destination for migrating species, and it's encouraging to note increasingly frequent sightings of Barry and Roger Green from Aston Down (often accompanied by Heather). Latest news from the 'green party' is that they've acquired that Polish Foka 5 glider advertised on Glider Pilot Net during the last few days and plan to operate it from Brentor. It certainly looked pretty and sounded like a heck of a bargain. Now we look forward to seeing this distinctive high performance sailplane from the sixties 'in the flesh'.

Bob Pirie

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