“Buckit!” announced the young female voice. A strange hush descended upon the
occupants of the Land Rover – had she really said what we thought she'd said?
Had we struck a bump/rut that the rest of us had not noticed? No, it was, as
Paula said, the surprise identification of a bucket atop the hurdle fence (that
we were about to take down) which caused her exclamation (see photo). Just shows
the effect that farmers can have on a young lady..!
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| The offending bucket... |
 |
Ten-Four big buddy I think we got us a convoy..!”
Changing ends (the cloudbase did rise further...) |
The main news of the day was that it (the weather) was flyable; however with
the windsock indicating east of south rather than the 190 predicted it was
necessary for us to change ends before we could launch. Once we had completed
monthly maintenance on both K-13s we were able to get through a very satisfying
range of flying, with both Paula – Buckit! - Howarth and Jeff Cragg re-soloing,
Peter Howarth flying with Roger Appleboom, Roger then flying with Richard
Roberts (allowing him to practice his back-seat skills), whilst Allan Holland
and Colin Boyd found a little wave to claim flight of the day at 7 minutes.
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| Paula Howarth re-soloes in the K-13. |
Whilst Fixed Price to Solo trainee Ed Borlase managed four flights, enabling him
to put CFI Don Puttock's previous lectures about slow flight, secondary effects,
and near-stall controllability of the K-13 into practice, the onset of
condensation on the wings by about 3:45pm was enough to persuade us that
discretion/safety should come before valour i.e.. getting the gliders properly
washed down and the fence up before darkness fell was probably better than
pressing on – so that was what we did.
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| Late afternoon blush on Blackdown. |
Thanks go to Leith Whittington who, post laser eye-ops, winched but didn't
fly, and to all those who have been working on the track in recent weeks to make
passage up and down so much smoother (although there remains room for
improvement towards the east end). It was a day that allowed you to appreciate
just how much can be achieved when you have two gliders, two cables and a
willing team (and no intervention by trial lessons/introductory visitors - much
as we love them...)
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| The gliders queue for their washdown beneath an interesting sky. |
Let's hope today wasn't the only flyable one between now and
New Year. Or the last day on which we hear a female on the airfield shout
“Buckit!”
Martin Cropper
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