Driving to the airfield in bright sunshine brought thoughts of a good days
flying with good company and the usual banter. As I was the first to arrive, I
unlocked the hangar and clubhouse. First task was to fire up the tractor and cut
a couple of strips on the north side of the track.
A few members were arriving and we set about readying the aircraft and field
for the days flying. With the quads low on fuel, Martin was dispatched to
Tavistock with the jerry cans. Our one day course Francis Colling and shortly
after Roger Lucas arrived. Roger is a pilot from Camp Hill who is down on
holiday with his family and managed to get a day pass to come and fly with us.
After briefing Francis and Roger, the field was ready and we started flying at
10:57.
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| Francis Colling ready to fly. Hope to see him again soon |
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| Roger Lucas. Our visitor from Camp Hill. |
I first flew with Francis, but unfortunately he had to leave unexpectedly.
Hopefully he will return soon and complete his course. Next up was Roger who had
a couple of check flights and familiarisation of the area. He then had a solo
flight in the K13 and a flight later in the K8.
We had two other visitors today for trial flights. First was Junior Allen who
flew with me. The next visitor was Peter Bourne who flew with Martin. Both left
with smiles on their faces having had 11 and 14 minute flights respectively.
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| Junior Allen ready for his flight with me.
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| Peter Bourne ready for his flight with Martin.
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Our only trainee today was David Westcott who flew with me. Off the top of
the launch we managed to find some lift. With some encouragement from me David
managed to climb to 3500ft. Having briefed on the ground before flying there was
only one way to use this height. A demonstration of a spin from a low slow final
turn and recovery was repeated with David handling the recovery. We followed
this with a demonstration of a spin off a failed winch launch. A couple of stall
recoveries we were soon back on the ground after a 39 minute flight.
How about our solo pilots. Leith continued to add to the clubs funds with a
longest flight of 8 minutes. Dave Downton consolidated re-soloing last week with
a couple of flights in the K8. Ed Borlase had his first soaring flight of 33
minutes in the K8. Josef Nobbs took off in the Zugvogel at 12:30. He finally
returned after 3 hours and 5 minutes with the excuse of he didn’t realise how
time had flown by.
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| View from the winch. Let’s hope for more skies like this.
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Thanks go to Dave Downton and Martin Cropper for winching, David Westcott and
Ed Borlase for retrieving. Only 22 flights, but a good days flying.
Peter Howarth
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