Saturday 11th August 2012

The weather looked really exciting. Blue sky, strong easterly winds. Must be a wave day. A look at the local atmospheric soundings threw some doubt on this.

Plenty of members were in attendance, and the club was ready to fly nice and early. So what happened.

The first flight confirmed my doubts. A lot of rotor and the gusty 15 knots at the ground was more like 30 knots at 1200 feet with very strong rotor but no wave.  DGS pilots are used to these conditions and they all got themselves airborne to try their luck. There were lots of valiant attempts but nobody contacted the wave. Best flight was by Alan Holland who sustained in the rotor for 45 minutes before he could stand it no more and came back to mother earth.

Unfortunately the conditions meant that we had to cancel our full air ex programme today. Flying in rotor would not be the best introduction to our sport.

CFI Don test flys the Bocian before putting the instructors through their paces

The Bocian was put online today and the instructors took the opportunity to convert to this aircraft, initially flying with CFI Don and then later with each other. We ended up with Bob,Sean and myself all fully checked out and ready to conduct lessons in this aircraft as required. While the conditions were challenging, the Bocian proved itself more than capable. It was relatively easy to maintain control in the worst of the rotor and the approach was easily handled. There are differences and club members will need conversion training but I am sure this will add to the fun. After getting the instructors going in the Bocian, Don spent lots of time with Roger Green on his Basic Instructor pre-course work up.

Club Secretary Sandra tried out the Bocian with instructor Bob Pirie 

Particular thanks today must go to Rick for his winching. Given the rough conditions he still managed to supply good launches. Great effort.

The day finished with a beer in the clubhouse while Sandra thoroughly briefed everyone on their roles for the coming Open Day.

Steve