‘Testing’: that was the word of the day: ‘testing’. As a Southerly 15kt wind blew 90⁰ across the runway (the forecast was for SW’ly) and the clouds barely scraped over the top of the tors, it would have been a testing day for launching, approach and landing in any event, but for yours truly it was also the day to be ‘tested’ following my recent Assistant Cat course at Portsmouth (there is no way you can simply attend a course with the BGA, be stamped ‘satisfactory’ and go on your merry way – your home club CFI always has to give his final ‘blessing’).
In this case the ‘blessing’ took the form of four flights: a lesson involving reduced ‘g’ and the different ways it may be encountered, an ultra low level launch failure (winch induced – thanks Nigel), a high level cable break with turn (self induced), and a flight with Bloggs (the perennial student) in which he decides to point the ground just as we’re approaching the final turn.
However, after 90 minutes or so of launches dedicated to me, it appeared that the ‘blessing’ had been achieved (or Don had just got fed up); and so it was time for new member Sam Deers, Shrek (who had reappeared after a summer in Dorset dispensing ‘bonhomie’) and, of course, Nigel the winch, to fly. Which they duly did, until cloudbase started swallowing the glider at 800ft, and with 3 out of 4 cables being swept over the boundary we decided it was time to call it a day.
Thanks go to Don (and Pauline, for interrupting their holiday to help with my acceptance flights), to Nigel for winching (not sure that’s the correct spelling for what he does) to Dave Bourchier, Colin Boyd and Sam Deers for their assistance at the launch point.
Martin Cropper.
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