A nice summer day. Atmospheric pressure was building again so maybe soaring wouldn't exactly be classic,but the wind was a steady 8 knots from WNW, flying conditions were good for local soaring and training. The only slight downside was the forecast weak front due later in the afternoon promising a rainy end to the day.
From an instructors point of view today was going to be a little tricky. Rick and I were going to have to share 1 K13 G-DDMX as HXP was off line for it's annual inspections so maximising the usage of DMX was going to be crucial so that we could meet our training commitments with visitors and club members alike.
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| Father and son Geoff and Rob Edge with me and hard working DMX |
Our One Day Course candidate was Geoff Edge who was accompanied by his son Rob who was also booked in for a couple of Introductory Flights. Our other visitor was Chris Girling who also had a couple of Introductory Flights. All seemed to enjoy their time at the airfield thanks in no small part to the welcome afforded to them by the club members and the gentle soaring available during their flights.
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| Visitor Chris Girling looks happy to be flying |
Rick and I want to thank all the members today for their patience with us queue jumping at the launchpoint to keep K13-GDDMX in the air as much as possible. By the end of the day, everyone who needed flights in the 2 seater had done so. In fact, this one aircraft had completed 20 launches.
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Mike Jardine's view of Tavistock."
"The clouds look a little uninspiring but there was enough energy for some local soaring |
Did this mean that solo flying was curtailed. No, not a bit of it. There were a further 24 solo flights ( total of 44 flights for the day). The longest flight was by Mike Jardine in his Astir who flew for 2 hours 7 minutes before handing the glider to his syndicate partner, Scratch, who then flew for a further 1 hour 32 minutes. There were numerous other soaring flights in the bouyant but tricky soaring conditions. In places there was a LOT of sinking air between very tight thermal bubbles; great fun.
Around 4.30 pm or so the forecast weak front made it's appearance with 8/8 cloud cover. This gradually stopped the soaring and by 6pm the rain had arrived which put an end to the flying day. This was a bit of a shame as there was a real desire to keep the flying going of another couple of hours but that's flying for you.
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K13-DDMX launching once again."
"This the after the front had arrived. Notice the cloud cover |
As members put the kit away and departed for the day, the Committee met in the clubhouse for their routine monthly meeting which stretched on well into the evening.
Steve
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