Sometimes the desire to fly is very strong and this can play with you emotions. Today started like this for me. The forecast looked ok but it would be a close call. Will there be rain? Will the wind strength and direction stay favourable?
I had a couple of hours work to do before I could go to the airfield during which the very low cloudbase was depressing. Work finished, off to the airfield under a glowering sky with drizzle in the air. Oh dear. Adjacent to Plymouth Airfield I had an instant improvement in mood. While waiting for the traffic lights I could see the sun shining on some fields near Caradon Hill in Cornwall. Roborough Down was under low cloud but looking across the moor to Brentor it looked brighter. Maybe? Drizzle approaching Tavistock ( oh dear again ) but this gave way to brighter conditions climbing up towards the Brentor. At the airfield it looked like a nice day. Hooray!!!
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| Today's single seaters keen to explore the good looking sky. |
The brisk westerly wind was only a few degrees off straight down the runway. The cloubase looked workable under the 4/8ths cloud with streeting evident. Should be a good day then.
This is probably just a well. Today was going to be a busy day. In the hangar the C of A work on K13 G-DDMX continues. This would mean Ged and I sharing K13 G-CHXP. We are well practiced at this.
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| Mathew Hubbard and Ged strapping in. |
First up was Ged flying with Matthew Hubbard who had returned to complete the second half of his One Day Course after the weather beat us during his first visit. During this it became obvious that the soaring was not as good as the sky looked. The Zugvogel and K8 struggled to stay up for 26 and 22 minutes respectively and the K13’s flights were around 15 minutes or so.
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| Stephen King and I getting ready to go |
I took the K13 to for today’s One Day Course Candidate Stephen King who progressed well over the day by the end of which he was able to fly the glider with reasonable accuracy, even managing a little soaring of his own towards the end. I also welcomed visitor Kathryn Bryers who came complete with Dad and her birthday present voucher. She enjoyed her flight. She has published her own pictures here.
https://www.facebook.com/KateBry/posts/931262590268927?notif_t=page_tag.
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| Katheryn looks pleased with herself pictured here with her dad. |
The K13 was definitely kept busy as Ged sorted out club training. This included a check flight with David Rippon and a series of training flights with Robert Manuel, David Downton and Jorg Beasley. Robert found his flight particularly useful as his 22 minute soaring flight gave him plenty of time to work on control coordination. Jorg had the last flight of the day with 26 minutes landing a little after 6pm. Great stuff.
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| As the day progress some of the cloud looked threatening |
So, a busy day, with some challenging soaring to please and tease us in equal parts. And me? I left the airfield with a big smile on my face.
Steve
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