The appalling Wednesday weather that's followed me around during recent weeks, punctuated by an unflyable 400 ft cloudbase day at Lasham last Sunday, continued today despite early signs that conditions might become not only flyable, but soarable. To add to the gloom, early attempts to fill the clubhouse kettle were thwarted by a temporary absence of water. It later transpired that the farmer (our landlord) was grappling with a leak 'somewhere in the system'.
As happened a couple of Wednesdays ago, the day started with a light easterly wind, lowish cloud over the airfield, even lower cloud over the moor, and a tantalising gap in between. So having encouraged the small group present to get their own gliders rigged and a couple of club gliders to the launch point, I was up and away with Richard Clarke, whom we were pleased to have back with us after a six-months layoff.
During the first launch, we released early to avoid entering cloud, then reached out tentatively over Mary Tavy in search of wave, while Richard got the feel of the glider and performed a surprisingly rust-free circuit and landing. Second time around we managed a full height launch, then engaged in some rather more ambitious wave and thermal hunting - finding but a whisper of the former over the valley and only a few turns-worth of the latter back over the field at low level. The flight concluded with a pre-planned and well-executed downwind landing. Well done, Richard. It's always a bit intimidating to try to pick up the pieces of one's training after a layoff - but if you can now maintain the momentum by attending more regularly, that elusive first solo won't be long coming.
Whilst we were airborne, Steve Lewis was entertaining our trial lesson visitor and his wife from Boscastle. But disappointingly, the weather socked-in and that was the end of flying for the day. Fortunately Barry Green, Mike Gadd and Andrew Beaumont had not yet got their wings on, so it was simply a case of wheeling their gliders back into the trailers.
Back at the clubhouse and hangar, our new vice chairman, Colin Boyd, and treasurer, Steve Raine, were showing signs of relishing their new roles. While Steve appeared to be joined at the hip with Dave Rippon - firstly being trained as a winch driver and secondly getting to grips with members' flying accounts - Colin rose to the challenge of getting essential chores done by carrying out a much-needed service of BVB, then sweeping the hangar apron, and finally clearing a blocked drain. (On reflection, 'rose to the challenge' may not be totally accurate, because as usual, wherever there was work to be done, there was Heather with mop in hand and a big smile on her face urging everyone onward.)
Bob Pirie
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