Wednesday 30th May 2012

With a lowish cloudbase, the first part of the day was only good enough for practising launch failures. Fairly soon we had sunshine and cumulus - but precious little in the way of useable thermals. However, on the plus side, the westerly breeze settled straight down the runway, enabling the 'HHW Winchers' to provide us with launch heights of 1,300 feet plus. ('HHW Winchers???  No, not a costly out-sourced service, but simply the Howe/Hardwick/Wilson trio once again giving up a chunk of their day to enable their fellow members to get airborne.). Robin ( the W) finally got himself signed off as a fully fledged solo winch driver. 

There were enough club members around to keep Ged, me and both two-seaters busy with both pre- and post-solo training, as well as trial lessons, with our newly re-elected Chairman Steve Lewis also helping out.

Our earliest and most enthusiastic visitors of the day were a team of residents and Mencap helpers from
Trelawney House, in Plymouth. Their 'star turn' was .Andrew Stewart who, having had his first glider flight with us a few weeks ago, returned today for another bite of the cherry.

Andrew Stewart was 'on top of the world' after his second glider flight at Brentor.

The Trelawney House team wait for the weather to improve.

Later on Stewart Hulley from Plymouth, accompanied by his girlfriend Lyndsay Jeff - who remained firmly on the ground -, enjoyed his trial lesson.

John Bolt and Steve Lewis prepare Stewart Hulley for his trial lesson. With him is his girlfriend, Lyndsay Jeff.

And finally, Debbie Wester overcame her initial fear of flying and enjoyed a birthday prezzie trial lesson, which had just been sprung on her by her husband.

Debbie Wester's trial lesson in a glider came as a complete surprise - and she seemed equally surprised by the fact that she enjoyed the experience

As well as achieving really healthy launch heights, our day was made more enjoyable by moving the winch further into the farmer's field and the launch point forward beyond the wind sock. The latter enabled most pilots to land either before or level with the launch point, thus greatly reducing  the amount of time and energy wasted retrieving gliders. With this layout, the windsock is not visible to pilots who are about to launch, so information on current wind status needs to be requested from the ground signaller or wingtip holder. 

Having barely recovered from all the work she put into preparing for the EGM, club Secretary Sandra applied herself to redecorating the interior of the chequered caravan, while her partner Alan enjoyed another summer's day deep in the bowels of his trailer, sanding off layers of filler from the wings of the SF.

Bob Pirie