Arriving at the airfield in low cloud with showers and drizzle did not bode well for a good day. The airfield though resembled an industrial village with work going on all around the site.
In the hangar K8 GDK was derigged and moved to the storage container while a new electronic variometer is sourced for it. K8 FXB was removed from store, assembled and prepare to join the club fleet - handy having a spare K8.
 |
| I wouldn't do it like that. K8 rigging is a group activity |
In the clubhouse, the project to extend the toilet facilities was taking great strides forward. Out on the runway, Ged was cutting the grass - perhaps this section could be titled "The Loneliness of the Long Distance Mower". Colin and Phil seemed to be deeply involved in remanufacturing the missing spring for the Supercat winch. There was also Navigation lectures going on in the clubhouse.
I am sure that I have missed a lot of other work going on today but thankyou everyone for your efforts.
After lunch, the weather started to clear up very quickly. The low cloud cover rolled away to be replaced with a 5/8 cumulus sky with plenty of sunshine on the ground. Even the wind was playing ball. It was still a little strong at 8 - 10 knots but from the WNW aligning it more or less with the runway, Excellent. With this rapid improvement it would have been rude not to go flying so that is what we did.
 |
| First flight of the day at 2pm was Steve fletcher in the K8 off for a half hour sortie in the developing thermals. |
 |
| Winch driver's view of the K8 on the first launch |
 |
| The wind was almost down the runway |
 |
| Mike Bennett ready to go soaring |
Meanwhile K8 G-CFXB first underwent a test flight with Steve Fletcher; very thorough at 24 minutes Steve! After which it made a couple of soaring flights with Mike Bennett and Malcom Wilton-Jones before the wind strengthened and we, reluctantly, returned it to the hangar.
 |
| John Allen taking a climb which took him to 2000 feet. |
 |
| K8 at the launch point and HXP on its way to the launch point |
 |
| Some nice clouds developed over the moors producing some good thermals. |
Rick turned up in the middle of the afternoon with K13 HXP in tow which was promptly put to work with some training flights for our potential IFP pilots Phil and Gavin.
By 6pm it was time to put the toys away. From a very unpromising we had got a lot of work done and a lot of training done. We achieved 19 flights with a 12 minute average flight time, best flight 28 minutes.
A great club flying day.
Steve
No comments:
Post a Comment