Saturday 21st July 2012

Summer arrived today. The only signs to remind us of our wet spell was a somewhat soggy runway.

The club got off to a slow(ish) start because most of the attending members decided to rig their own aircraft. Meanwhile a few members soldiered on and got the club flying underway with Air Experience Instructor Mike Sloggett entertaining the 1st Highweek Scouts, a task which he stuck to all day. The scouts had a great time – thanks Mike.

Some of the scout group watching the action.

So what of the soaring day. Well, it remained soarable from around 11am until well past 7pm; an 8 hour soaring day. Do you need your 5 hours? Where were you? It was sometimes a little tricky to get away due to the systems recycling but once aloft there were cloud streets as far as you could see, the bases of which rose rapidly through the day to about 3000 feet above the airfield. The day ended with 2 convergences positioned close by.

So, what did the club members achieve? I had the longest flight in a club aircraft, 1hour 44 minutes in the Zugvogel. Ged had the longest flight of the day, 3 hours ( and  1 minute ) in his Open Cirrus. While both of us were building solo hours needed for our instructor ratings, Ged was a bit more adventurous and had a go at a cross country flight to try out his new moving map system. His task was Brentor – Holsworthy – Crediton – Brentor for 100 km. Initially everything went to plan, but, 5 kms short of Holsworthy, disaster, his computer froze and needed to be reset. He was unable to reset the task in the air and the computer would not allow him to start the task in the middle so he returned to Brentor to start again. The computer went well this time but by the time he approached Holsworthy the sea air had cut it off. He eventually returned to Brentor for a “comfort break”, air braking all the way down from 3200 feet.

Will looks pleased with himself and the Zugvogel. 

Meanwhile, Will Wilson converted to the Zugvogel and landed with the customary smile which seems to come from flying this aircraft. Malcolm Roberts re-soloed some 38 years after he last flew solo. Well done.

Malcolm looks remarkably calm waiting for his first solo flight for 38 years 

A great day


Steve