True to form, no sooner had I set foot back on these shores than the weather went downhill fast. However, it was good to be back at the club, and the prospect of gale force winds and heavy showers failed to deter a small group of optimists intent on flying should the smallest opportunity have presented itself. But it didn't, and tempting though it may have been to try 'just one launch', a crosswind gusting to 30 kts and the arrival of heavy showers made the decision a no-brainer.
Therefore having DI-d the ASK13 and satisfied ourselves that all of the gliders in the club fleet were up-to-date maintenance-wise, it was back to the clubhouse for all of us except Steve Raine, who spent the morning rolling the airfield.
The presence of John Bolt, Phil Hardwick and Dave Bourchier prompted us to enquire what chores needed to be done, but they'd obviously run out of ideas, so it was a case of sitting down for cups of tea, sarnies and a natter. I must say the clubhouse looked in pretty good shape both externally (with the canopy refitted) and internally, following the tidying up done for last Saturday evening's met presentation. The only evidence remaining of that event and the barbecue afterwards was a distinctive 'burgery/sweaty' aroma, and a bag of stale hot dog buns.
Among the other enthusiasts present today, our resident K8 addict Mike Keller needed little persuading to not even think about rigging his little machine,so he consoled himself by sitting down to administer some trial lesson bookings.
Our only ab initio students today were were Ian Osbourne and Adrian Irwin - (the term 'ab initio' being a misnomer really, because prior to hanging up their professional wings fairly recently, both had clocked up thousands of hours as airline pilots, and Adrian had also been an RAF fast jet instructor). But as I have so often found typical of such high achievers, when it comes to learning to glide, they are quite happy to revert to 'square one' of the training syllabus, and are also not slow in coming forward to muck in with club chores. They started today by being coached in, and then signed off for, daily inspections by our senior engineer, John Bolt, after which I gave them a talk on launch failures.
Finally, we climbed into a Land Rover Discovery and carried out a tour of the airfield to familiarise them with the various approaches, landing areas, obstructions and places where it is preferable not to attempt a landing.
I had hoped that during the day we might have demonstrated some approaches over the valley from the north, followed by landings on the stub runway, but with the weather having deteriorated considerably, we all called it a day and headed for home.
Bob Pirie
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