With a moist north-westerly it was no surprise to find the airfield shrouded
in low cloud. Today our CFI Don was attending to help Martin prepare for his
Full-Cat rating. First up was for Martin to give a morning briefing to decide if
we were going to be able to fly. With most of the met forecasts predicting low
cloud and possible rain later in the day it was looking doubtful. But RASP gave
a glimmer of hope that the cloud would be high enough for those who wanted the
get some cable break practice around mid-day.
While we waited it was time to put the kettle on and settle down for a
lecture on the theory of flight given by Martin.
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| Martin teaches the Theory of Flight |
This was added to by Don in his usual manner and kept all interested until it
was time to look outside to see if the weather was behaving as per RASP.
Although there were some different views as to the cloud base, Martin declared
we would get one of the K13’s out and give it a go. So all hands to the pumps
and the airfield was readied for some cable break practice. First flight saw the
pairing of Don & Martin, with Martin demonstrating to Don the correct
procedure for a cable break. They did wait until just before going into cloud at
800ft before pulling off.
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| Don and Martin preparing to fly |
Next flight was the same pairing, with Don playing Bloggs for the same
exercise.
While Don and Martin debriefed, I settled into the back seat ready to put
Dave Downton and then Ed Borlase through some launch failure practice. After six
flights and the rain approaching from the north obscuring Brentor it was a quick
retreat to put the gliders away and wipe them down.
We made the most of a short period of clearer weather and it was a relief
that all went well (more for one than others):-
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| Cleaning the drogue 'chute |
A big thank you to Richard for winching, Leith for retrieving and Roger for
helping at the launch point; all without flying.
Peter Howarth
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