Saturday 2nd February 2013 – Shenington Expedition

  Rick and Matt Wiles and myself collected Don and drove up to Shenington before dawn with the task of Cross Country Endorsement exams for Matt and myself and field landing refreshers for Rick.

We arrived 0930 to be greeted by friendly Sheningtonians and a cloudless blue sky and biting Northerly wind.

What a nice looking day

After a relatively sleepless night I was keen to be the first up for Navex and field landings. We motored off into 25kt at 340 first turnpoint destination Bidford gliding club - and hey, I found it! Turned South for next turnpoint and looking for my next waypoint realised we'd already flown over it, such was the tailwind. At this point Don decided to throw a spanner into my well made plans - I won't say what that was but it meant I had to think - brain wasn't quite prepared for that - but I did fine in the end and even the field landings were OK.

Matthew in the front seat of a Shennington K13

When we got back Matt had already got in a couple of K13 field familiarisation flights and Rick did the same. Matt then left to do his XC stuff and came back beaming - Ok there then - that meant he got his XC endorsement - I've still got the 2 hour flight to do.

Rick, Will and Matthew and the shadowy figure of Don

We drove back into a glorious Cotswold sunset. A good day. Many thanks to all at Shenington, and for Don's gentle way of examining, and his time and big big thank you to Rick despite offers to take over, did all the driving - 8hours in total!! 

Will Wilson