Sunday gave a short break in the almost continuous wet weather
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| A soggy sojourn out to the launchpoint. |
To the north of the launchpoint the ground was a quagmire; to the south it was like a skating-rink. We took the south side option (well, it was more like a sodden cricket pitch, actually…) With a westerly wind of around 7-9kts, but gusting to 25kts+, we were within limits, but care would be needed. Sporadic showers were also in the forecast, generating an array of rainbows, which always lift the spirits!
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| Two winches, a tractor, a church and...another rainbow..! |
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Brentor: a haven for rainbow spotters –
this magnificent panorama was taken by Ed Borlase |
And so, with a small but cheerful team on hand, we set about getting K-13 DMX down to the east end. But first, mentioned must be made of the early morning work put in by Dean ‘Scratch’ Hitchens to get the Supacat running, by by-passing a recalcitrant float glass, which had cracked, allowing air to be drawn into the fuel system. With a longer-term repair pending, this was a great piece of defect busting for which he justly received everyone’s thanks.
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| First launch of the day gets away, under the careful scrutiny of Instructor Peter Howarth |
This Duty Instructor’s thoughts of using the day to practice cable breaks (launch failures) were rapidly discarded, however, after the first launch revealed a very strong wind gradient, which was tricky enough to handle without compounding the ‘interest’ by releasing the cable prematurely (who can recall when TEM was known simply as ‘What could possibly go wrong..?’) So circuits were the order of the day and, despite launches to 1,200ft, an upper air wind speed of 35kts meant there was little one could do but wait until it was time to drop into a (very rapidly moving) circuit.
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| Steep approaches were the order of the day... |
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| ...to be followed by perfect touchdowns, in this case by Steve Fletcher. |
Thankfully, and to the great credit of pilots, nearly all returns to earth halted within walking distance of the launchpoint, the quad-bike being required just once, so damage to the turf was limited to the minimum (although turning the retrieve vehicle has left its mark).
Longest flight of the day was academic (more log-keeper error than soaring effort) but the team of Steve Fletcher, Dave (‘Shorts’) Downton, Ed Borlase, Scratch, Phil Hardwick, Ray Boundy, Barry Green, Roger Green and Malcolm-Wilton-Jones all seemed to end the day with smiles on their faces.
Martin Cropper
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