A tip to all winch drivers when setting the field up in the morning, DI and
start the winch before towing the cables out for the first time of the day.
Having not done this today we were faced with a winch that would not start and
two cables laid out. Phil Hardwick and John Smith set about diagnosing the
problem. They managed initially to jury rig the winch to get it started and
remove the cables from the field. Meanwhile we towed ML1 from the east end to
enable us to start flying. John and Phil found a problem with the solenoid on
the starter and managed to get the Gus winch working.
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| John & Phil working on the Gus winch. |
Richard Roberts and I took the first launch to check the cloudbase and see if
we would be able to fly our expected visitors. A cloudbase of 1200ft, but very
benign conditions were found so Richard was able to carry on with the trial
flights.
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| Richard and Peter on the way to checkout today's cloudbase |
Our first visitor was Roger Martin who enjoyed two flights with Richard.
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| Roger Martin with Richard. |
The next visitor war Cheryll Tarr who was trying to complete 70 experiences
before her 71st birthday. These ranged from getting her ears pierced to doing a
parachute jump. A gliding experience filled one of the many slots.
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| Cheryll Tarr ready to fly with Richard. |
Our solo pilots enjoyed circuits in the K8. After working on the winch John
Smith flew with me. On our second flight we initially found broken lift and
after drifting the length of the airfield without losing any height John pushed
back into wind. He then found some more substantial lift and we soon climbed to
cloudbase at 1600ft. We eventually landed after 23 minutes for John to claim
flight of the day.
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| Brentor Church |
Thank you to all who turned up today. A day where problems were thrown at us,
but were solved with the usual determination. At least everybody flew who wanted
to fly.
Peter Howarth
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