Saturday 19th January 2013

Most of the snow has thawed and made the journey to the club possible. Wind NE – NNE so possible wave but the big issue is the large areas of very low cloud,

Mike Gadd working on the Open Cirrus

The club sat under the low cloud so on with the ground tasks. The Guslaunch winch radiator was welded in place. The welder today was 17 year old Matthew who was taught to weld  ( very well incidentally ) for a school project. The Open Cirrus syndicate, Ged and Mike worked with inspector John to complete the CofA and ARC renewal on their beautifully presented aircraft.

The Guslaunch rebuild crew, Dave Bouchier, Rick and Matt Wiles

At 2:30 the cloud lifted a little and it was game on. Several check flights and a few solo flights rewarded the pilots for their patience and persistence. There was some signs of wave but the cloudbase remained just too low to allow this to be exploited to any real degree.

BY 4:15 the cloudbase had lowered again and stopped flying for the day. After returning the gliders to the hanger we discovered that the mud had in fact frozen on and removing it was a bit of a challenge. CFI Don was even seen to help with the glider washing. Whatever next!

CFI Don pictured scrubbing the icy mud from the K13  tailplane.

Steve