With high pressure still in charge over the south of England, hopefully the
hardest decision was which end to fly. The forecast was for light northerly wind
backing NNW later in the day. So we left the airfield set to fly from the east
end. The K8 and K13 were readied and towed down the airfield for first launch at
10:39. Two private gliders were also rigged, Steve Fletcher’s Open Cirrus and
Phil Hardwick’s Astir.
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| Aircraft waiting under clear blue sky to launch. |
First to fly with me was Robin Wilson. The launch was eventful with the speed
varying and as it dropped off, Robin rightfully abandoned the launch and treated
it as an eventuality. After talking to the winch driver, we tried another
launch. Although better we achieved a full launch, but slightly lower than would
be usual for the conditions. When we landed it was decided to swap winches.
After a short delay, Joe Nobbs was next in the K13 with me to carry on working
to get himself current again.
Meanwhile Steve Fletcher and Phil Hardwick had also launched. Steve managed
to find some lift and disappeared for 1 hour 43 minutes. Also after re-soloing
on Saturday Malcolm Wilton-Jones converted to the K8 and dutifully disappeared
for 1 hour 24 minutes. Well done Malcolm.
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| Steve climbing at 2400 |
Next in the K13 was John Smith. His second flight was a soaring flight. So we
made use of the height to do some spin recoveries and a demonstration of a spin
from a failed winch launch.
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| John climbing through 2300’ |
Returning ex member Hugh Gascoyne was next. After 9 years away from flying,
he was very keen to get back into the saddle. He had four flights including a
power failure and by the end was realising what he had missed.
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| Hugh Gascoyne ready for his first flight. |
The last pilot for the K13 was Bob Sansom. Two circuits and a cable break
well handled, Bob is on his way hopefully to re-solo ready for the soaring
season in the near future.
Thank you to everybody who turned up today to make a good day flying
including Mike Bennett and Alan Holland who helped with winching and have not
been mentioned above.
Peter Howarth
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