Sunday 4th Oct 2015
Arrived at Aston Down early evening, accommodation was very good, unpacked then had a look around... airfield was huge which was great... there was no chance that even I could miss it. Anyway a couple drinks in the clubhouse and an early night was called for.
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| The wide open spaces of Aston Down Airfield |
Monday 5th Oct 2015
9am start... Winds 180/25, visibility 20K, rain and drizzle . Don made the best of it by giving us a talks on Trim & Best speed to glide, principles of flight, altimetry and launch failures, all interesting stuff, lots to learn. Finally the rain stopped at 2pm so it was time for some aviation.
So out it was with the PW6. Bit of a shock I was hoping it would be a K13 but had a couple flights with Don in it anyway. Felt very alien at first and took a little getting used to.
Airbrakes on top only, which as Don described sounded a much better design, though took a little while to get used to it automatically pitching down when I opened the brakes.
Needless to say, my performance was shocking... I was surprised Don let me carry on playing but thankfully he did.
I did like the seating position, very comfortable and the trimmer was great.
It was time to pack up all too soon.
Tuesday 6th Oct 2015
8.15am start, Winds 140/15 Rain and drizzle to start. low cloud rising pm.
A morning in the classroom with Don again. oh will this rain go away... well it finally did around lunchtime.
Managed five flights today, lots of circuits which was good, helped me get used to the PW6 and by the end of the day I was starting to love it.
All my landings were a bit long... now if only I could remember to pull that wheel brake lever
Wednesday 7th Oct 2015
8.15am start, winds 300/25, visibility 30K, rain until midday. Briefings today around map reading and airspace... lots for me to learn.
Managed six flights today. A bit of a crosswind today which made it interesting. Mixture of stalls, spins, spiral dives. What a fun day (strange as I don't like rollercoaster's but this was fun), the PW6 is great for spinning exercises, I wanted to do more but unfortunately the day was coming to an end... well there is always tomorrow.
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| The Launchpoint with control vehicle (bus) and glider tow (golf buggy) |
Thursday 8th Oct 2015
8.15am start. Winds 250/05, visibility 30K, cloudbases rising to 4000ft QNH. Notam class D around Kemble from 16.15 Z.
Woke up today and it wasn't raining for a change.
Six flights of Launch failure.. Launch failure oh and more Launch failures.
Flight 7.. wow we reached the top of the launch.. Don stayed quiet in the back and let me do my own thing, it was great to just go where I wanted.
Once we landed Don asked me if I would like to do it on my own... I'd love to. Didn't have much time until the notam kicked in but off I went (Don probably guessed the chances of me staying up there longer than 5 minutes were slim to none). Just a quick circuit and a few minutes later I was back on the ground. What a flight I loved every second of it. Yippee my first solo flight done... longing for many more to come.
We then packed up. Filling in P1 in my logbook as me was novel and kept me smiling.
We all went out for a course meal at a local pub in the evening which was a very nice to finish the day off.
What a great day
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| Ready for a solo in the PW6 |
Friday 9th October 2015
8.15am start. light winds, foggy to start and sunshine later.
We got the kit out first thing waiting for the fog to lift... After yesterday I was itching to get back up there on my own and waiting for the fog to lift was like watching paint dry... eventually it did at lunchtime. There was rather a lot of cloud around to start so no solo's initially. First flight was with Don to see how high the cloud was..... needless to say we were back on the ground in under a minute.. though I wanted to go again as I was a bit slow at getting the airbrake out when we hit cloud so wanted to get it right. Though the cloudbase looked to be rising. Second flight with Don, we went straight up through a gap in the cloud. We got to the top of the launch and all I can say is wow.. to see all the cloud below looked amazing...
I couldn't stop smiling... well up until the point I realised I needed to get back down again and couldn't see the runway. Thankfully Don was there to talk me through how to get back down through a gap in the clouds and trying to find the runway. Heart was pounding a bit to say the least especially knowing that cloudbase was so low but what an amazing experience.
A little later once the cloud had truly lifted and broken up, I had four more solo flights. Mainly circuits but found a thermal once... now if only I could thermal properly.. I thought I was up there for ages... until I checked the log... 8 minutes lol oh well I can only get better I guess.
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| Waiting for the cloud to lift |
Unfortunately they wouldn't let me take the PW6 home, well you don't know unless you ask..
I'd like to thank Don for having the faith in me to send me solo and not giving up on me earlier in the week when I felt like a fish out of water in the PW6 initially.
I'd also like to thank Ged for all the instruction before my week away and enduring some not so pretty landings of mine.
I'd like to thank Rick for the trial flights and encouragement he has given me along the way.
Actually I could be here all day so.... I'd like to thank everyone else at the club for the warm welcome and encouragement, it's been a great adventure so far to reach the first rung of the ladder.... learnt a lot... now there is so much more to learn, refine etc. it will be a life long journey that I look forward too.
Simon Collier
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