Hopefully today was a positive turning point in all sorts of ways related to weather, fleet and equipment improvements and removal of restrictions that had temporarily limited flying by some of our members. Also it was the Gadds' wedding anniversary, and Mike Gadd achieved brownie point all round by arriving early to help get the kit out, grabbing an enjoyable couple of hours in the Open Cirrus, and then getting home in time for tea.
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| Rigging the private fleet |
We had a good turnout of private owner members and trial lesson/one day course candidates - but few ab initio students, and no demand whatsoever for club single seaters - which was disappointing.
The lack of 'experienced hands' put a lot of pressure on the few, as so often seems to happen these days. But nonetheless we had an impressive line-up of nine gliders at the launch point, achieving a total of 37 launches - plus only one weak link failure when the hefty Duo Discus took to the air. The Guslaunch winch did all we asked of it - mostly in the skilled hands of Rob Wilson who spent most of the day winch driving, until Alan Holland took over, sacrificing his own chance to fly as a result. A welcome 'familiar face' returned in the form of Will Wilson, who spent most his day on cable retrieve (later relieved by Bob Sansom), and re-joined the club as a full flying member.
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| Today's grid getting ready under a good looking sky |
Weatherwise, it was a super day with loads of soaring achieved, but the cumulus clouds kept coming and going - and when they 'went', pilots found little more than a hasty circuit or two on offer. Still, all good for club coffers (and pilot currency!), as were the 11 introductory flights to potential new members delivered by Steve Lewis. Today's flying visitors were One Day Course candidate Peter Lillywhite and Air Experience visitors Tom Mitchell, Paul Mcnaulty and Fred Hunter. We also welcomed Chris Jones who was visiting with a view to joining us to further his flying skills. Ex Army Air Corps Chris has previously flown helecopters in the Army and touring motor glider Grob 109's in the Air Cadets. We are looking forward to the chase to introduce him to sport gliding in pure gliders.
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| Experienced pilot Chris Jones will return to fly with us soon |
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| One Day Course candidate Peter Lillywhite |
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| Visitors from Newquay are Paul Mcnaulty and his wife |
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| Air Experience visitor Fred Hunter |
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| Air Experience flyer Tom Mitchell |
Fleet-wise, the good news is that after months of hard work by John Bolt and various helpers to get our recently-acquired two-seater, K7M G-DCLT airworthy, I managed to start the day by test flying this aircraft. Apart from identifying a need to change the belly hook - which was done by Ged Nevisky and signed-off immediately - I am pleased to report that 'she's a beauty', and more pleasant to fly than her predecessor, DAK. Now we need to use her to her full potential as the second two-seater in our fleet but, above all, to look after her.
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| Bob Pirie about to test fly K7M G-DCLT |
During the afternoon we put this glider into service, with John Howe and then Jorg Beasley in the front seat, but the greatest pleasure of all (apart from lots of soaring) was to sit back and let John Bolt Bolt sample the fruits of his labours.
Bob Pirie
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