Today's weather played with our pilots hopes like a yo-yo. For a couple of days before there were posts on our club Forum suggesting that this could be the "Day of Days". Looking out of the window early on Saturday morning was enough to see those hopes dashed. Thick fog.
The eternal optimism of the glider pilot allowed the thought that perhaps this is just sea mist to keep hopes alive. So, off inland towards the airfield soon this idea was soon dispelled. The airfield was shrouded in fog also. The early arrivals explained that the fog had arrived just as the airfield and all the kit was made ready. Nothing to do but wait. This gave us time to catch up with Mike Sloggett our lead instructor today who is always very welcome on the airfield. Mike has a long history with our club; his father was one of the founding members.
Around 11:30 the fog had lifted enough to commence flying operations. The launch point was busy with both training flying in the K13's and the single seaters who had turned up in hopes of a good day.
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A Gaggle of Gliders. Today's single seaters.
Can we have them in a tidy line next time please? |
Visiblity was not great and the cloud base was low but this did not deter one of our cross country pilots, Mike Gadd, who disappeared into the gloom in his Open Cirrus determined to complete his planned flight Brentor - Holswothy - Crediton West - Brentor , a task of 107 km. He said that Holsworthy was easy, Credition was difficult but the low cloud base delayed him so much that he just ran out of day and landed in a field on the way home after 82km. He was retrieved by Simon Collier in the early evening.
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| Mike's Open Cirrus in yest another field |
We welcomed several visitors today. Sandra Corbett and Ray Cornwell enjoyed Introductory Flights with Rick Wiles. Peter Siddall was today's One Day Course student who enjoyed lots of soaring flights and, by the end of the day, was able to pilot the aircraft around the local area with some style.
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| Introductory Flight visitor Sandra Corbett |
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| Introductory Flight visitor Ray Cornwell |
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| One Day Course candidate Peter Siddall |
Apart from Mike's cross country, the best flight of the day was Richard Roberts who was airborne for 2 hours 36 minutes in the local area having abandoned his task because of the low cloud base. Another notable flight was by Stephen Fletcher who converted to the K8 with flights of 10 and 13 minutes. Well done Steve.
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| Poor visibilty near the airfield from 3000 feet |
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| Stephen Fletcher converted to the K8 |
A good day.
Steve
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