Sunday: a day of faith for many, and today that included us at Brentor – faith that the slow moving cold front predicted to cross the site at 1pm local would in fact do so. For as we took the gliders to the launch point in the morning the cloud was 8/8 and cloudbase anywhere between the tops of the moors (2,200ft amsl) or the top of Brentor church (200ft agl!).
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| Introductory Flight Pilot Peter Howarth with Jacob Heathcote, from Bristol. |
But with a busy programme to meet (a One Day Course, 4 Introductory Flights plus club trainees, check flights and a keen solo contingent) there was every need to get cracking as soon as we could. Which turned out to be shortly after 1030, when IFP Peter Howarth launched with visitor Jacob Heathcote (see photo), who had travelled from Bristol with his mum to stay with grandparents at Lamerton. That launch was closely followed by ODC student, Mike Bennett, from Plymouth who, having run activity centres (various), and being a caver, mountain biker and 5-a-side football player, had great expectations of us.
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| One Day Course student Mike Bennett using all 3 controls to soar at 1,450ft. |
Then the rain came. So for an hour we retreated to the launch point caravan (for some this meant 'breakfast 2', for others 'lunch 1') keenly surveying the sky for a sign of a break in the clouds. By a little after 1200 there was the faintest hint of blue and so the Sunday Times and lunch boxes were discarded in flavour of flight.
The gradual improvement in conditions were evidenced by K-8 pundit Chris Owen, whose first flight at 1230 yielded only 9 minutes, to be followed 45 minutes later by a flight of 22 minutes. At which point the solo pilots all attempted to launch together – slightly difficult with only 2 cables - but it did at least push the launch rate up to 6s and 7s over the following two hours. At which point thanks are due (once again) to Barry Green and Heather Horsewill for providing a faultless winch and retrieve service; Barry's launches never exceeding 65kts to 1,500ft whilst Heather always timed her return to the winch to maximise efficiency of launch rate over recovery of the cables. Also thanks are due to Leith Whittington, whose 'red eye' arrival at the club ensured that the kit was out and ready for use by 9.00am.
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| Visitor Brian Smith, from Lamerton. |
As soon as the sun managed to get through its heat was apparent, and the cloudbase lifted rapidly whilst the breeze backed and the sky became more organised as the afternoon progressed. Peter Howarth flew with visitors David Thomas and Brian Smith (see photos), both being given brief introductions to soaring, and capped his day with teenager Nathan Savage (see photo), who was transported to over 2,000ft in K-13 HXP in a flight of 20 minutes. Meanwhile Roger Appleboom in his K-6 showed Leith Whittington (Dart 17R) a 'clean pair of heels' by shooting up to 3,000ft plus, both having started at similar heights in the same thermal, whilst Leith was left scratching for a further 20 minutes at about 1,500ft... Roger then returned to terra firma to relieve Barry at the winch.
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| Visitor David Thomas. |
Jeff Cragg, Peter Harvey and Mike Keller all managed to soar for 20 minutes or so in the K-8, whilst Chris and Elliot Acton occupied the front seat of K-13 DMX during Mike Bennett's interlude at the winch end. 'Flight of the Day' accolade, however, was won most emphatically by Richard Roberts (fresh from his 40th birthday celebrations) who managed 3 minutes short of an hour on his second flight in his new K-6CR FHZ, reaching cloudbase at 3,200ft. By the sound of the feedback given on his return, he will achieve much more in future and with greater ease once the altimeter and varios have received encouragement to provide some slightly more 'real time' readings of what's going on.
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| Visitor Nathan Savage. |
Mindful of the fact that club workhorse K-13 DMX needed to be derigged in preparation for its annual CofA the following morning, and that the hurdle fence need to be put back up (otherwise its back to caked on cow pats around the lower fuselages) we started packing up relatively early, and had everything put away by 7:30pm.
So today keeping faith in the weather forecast paid off for, had we relied on the view out of the window at 8:00am, we would have scrubbed. Thirty nine launches later I think we can gratefully say thank you, Met Office.
Martin Cropper
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