A scorching day with very little wind - and the heat and lack of thermal activity were probably the reason why several of our regulars found excuses to be elsewhere.
The day's low point came right at the start, when BVB was found to have suffered a failure of its main wheel bearing, which resulted in the separation of the two halves of the heel hub. So for most of the day the glider sat forlornly where it had come to rest on the stub runway, while a replacement wheel and tyre were sourced from stores and fitted. It says a lot for the 'can do' spirit that exists among our members that by late afternoon the glider was back on-line. A vote of thanks to David Bourchier, Ged Nevisky and Colin Boyd for getting the job done - and especially to John Bolt for supervising and signing off the work. (John had a busy day, because as well as creating and fitting a new tail skid for the Zugvogel, he also fulfilled a commitment to carry out Bob Sansom's K8 ARC inspection.
With BVB temporarily our of action, Ged Nevisky and I - especially Ged - kept DMX busy with a full programme of training flights and trial lessons. Today's visitors were Colin Jarvis from Exeter (accompanied by his wife Jane) on a one-day course; also Joan Harmsworth, who took a trail lesson. We also welcomed Martin Broadway's wife Kay and her friend Annie Norton, who took the opportunity to compare gliding with their usual sport of sailing.
It was great to have our trial lesson coordinator, Mike Keller, airborne again after a bit of a lay-off from flying, while 'fixed price to solo' member David Horne made good progress with his approaches and landings, and 're-treading' glider pilot Malcolm Roberts (see last Saturday's blog) completed another successful re-solo.
Steve Raine continued to whittle away at his post-solo flying exercises, before donning the mantle of a trainee winch driver. Our thanks to John Howe and David Rippon for sharing winch driving duties between flights in the K8.
Private owner-wise, we had three gliders airborne: Chris Kaminski's Pirat, Colin Boyd and Darren Wills in their K6, and Martin B. and yours truly in our ASW 20F.
Finally, we were pleased to note the return to the field of Steve Lewis's and Trevor Taylor's Jantar after several months away while its cockpit canopy was being mended.
Bob Pirie
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