A promising day, as many agreed, with cloudbase expected to rise above 2,500ft agl by mid-afternoon, at which time RASP was predicting 3-4 stars, with a light north-westerly breeze.
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“I thought they said ‘give us a hand clearing up some canapés’”
mutters Martin Cropper on discovering that the words were ‘cleaning’ and ‘canopies’..! |
First of our visitors was John (Nick) Crick, who was flown by IFP Rich Roberts. For us on the ground it’s often the reaction from the family that’s the most telling as, after two flights – the second being 11 minutes – rugby-shirted John grasped them all as if he’d just scored the winning try in a cop match!
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| Visitor John Crick receiving his pre-flight brief from IFP Rich Roberts. |
Rich’s second customer was Mike Campion who, with his partner, have run a pub in Plymouth for 25 years but, secretly, Mike has always wanted to re-live his ATC days (more than 25 years ago) and get back into the air in a glider. Well today that dream came true – and Mike now has his flights recorded in his ATC Record of Service to prove it!
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| Mike Campion about to re-live his ATC days with Rich Roberts. |
And demonstrating once again that the best things come in pairs our third visitors were husband and wife team Malcolm and Anthea Fisher, with Anthea getting the better of the deal with a 15-minute promenade via Blackdown, although Malcolm also seemed quite happy with his slightly shorter (4 mins) time aloft.
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Husband and wife team Malcolm and Anthea Fisher flew with us today.
 | | Anthea looking totally relaxed… |
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| …as away she goes in K-13 HXP. |
The first of our soloists to get away was Ed Borlase, in his immaculate K-6 DQS which, on their second flight, took him to 1,700ft agl during 21 minutes in the air. He described the flight as “Very satisfying, but extremely challenging, requiring all my concentration to stay within the narrow lift.” But why so? In truth, the day did not turn out as expected: the sky resembled more a bowl of sweetcorn soup (but without the sweetcorn) than a classic English summer of blue and white, with layers of grey cloud preventing the sun from getting through and heating the ground. Once a gap occurred, however, the heat could be felt and thermals did develop. Which is what happened just as Steve Fletcher was about to launch. Noticing the fact, Steve steered his Open Cirrus immediately upon release towards the tiniest of grey cumulus and was rewarded with some steady lift to 2,000ft plus, taking Flight of the Day at 32 minutes.
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| Ed Borlase in K-6 DQS accelerates during the ground run… |
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| …and quickly gets into the sky. |
Without the benefit of the Open Cirrus’s huge wingspan, and the disadvantage of a body in the back, our trainees had to be content with circuits for their flying delight. That’s not to say there was no benefit to be had: Mark Elliott practiced mushing stalls, new member Geoff Cole got his hands ‘dirty’ with his first touch of the stick for 25 years, and Ray Boundy achieved a total of 14 minutes in the air, every one of which being a small but irrefutable step towards his return to solo.
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New member Geoff Cole, from Sourton (pronounced ‘Sawt’n’),
prepares to fly with Martin Cropper. |
Thanks go to Andy Davey and Phil Hardwick for winching, and to Peter Howarth for keeping the launchpoint safe whilst others did their aviation thaang!
Martin Cropper
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