By my calculation
there are just seven Thursdays left (including today) until we shift mid-week flying back to
Wednesdays. Then the Thursday Tinkerers will be no more. What will the new new
Wednesday fliers be known as. Answers on a postcard please. (Ed Wednesday Wavers hopefully).
Thursday's forecast was mostly cloudy with a northerly
gentle to moderate breeze. Flyable but nothing spectacular.
After the gliders and equipment were extracted from the
hangar and inspected, they were taken to the east end. The weather was not as
forecast with the wind strength being much higher than expected. Meanwhile
Scratch, Colin and I worked on maintenance items.
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| Almost empty hangar. |
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| Chief tinkerer Colin fuelled and ready to go. |
After a few weather check flights it was clearly
not a day to fly the K-8 and the Thursday Tinkerers had little appetite to fly
the K-13 with me as a safety pilot. Will this all change when the
newly-minted CFI arrives on the field at 1300 as the Duty Instructor?
Ever the optimist, Richard Roberts had rigged his Discus. Three flights including a launch failure, the longest of which was 21 minutes saw the Discus returned to the trailer.
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| Optimistic Richard getting ready. |
Rick Wiles, duty instructor arrived and started working through the trainee list of one. Steve Lesson would have his full attention. After the first flight it was decided that conditions were not really suitable to fly our visitors, but they wanted to stay and watch in case conditions improved as per the forecast. Steve was subjected to some stalling exercises and out of position circuits. All good work and part of the syllabus.
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| Steve Lesson with Rick. |
Visiting Canadian pilot Roger Spall flew with Phil Hardwick in the Twin Astir. He was just happy to be flown around to look at the sights from the air and not take control. Later in the day he took another flight in the K13 with Scratch (Dene Hitchen).
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| Roger and Scratch in the K13. |
With no visitor flying the spare K13 was put to good use when Scratch and Steve Fletcher took off for a flight of 25 minutes to claim flight of the day.
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| Scratch and Steve enjoying their flight. |
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| Their view of Brentor Church. |
With conditions moderating it was decided that our visitors could be flown. Hugh Gascoyne flew with friend and fellow musician Peter Jones. I flew with Susie Du Cros. Susie said she was being more adventurous in later life and wanted to try different things including gliding. Two flights lift her very happy and passed comments about how friendly the club were explaining to her every step of the process getting her into the air.
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| Susie delighted to be flying. |
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| Peter Jones with Hugh |
The moderating conditions allowed Rick to fly the K8 to assess things ready for other solo pilots to fly. martin Broadway and Steve Fletcher both had flights, the longest Steve with 11 minutes.
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| Martin being hooked on by Steve. |
With everybody having flown who wanted to, it was time to pack the toys away. Thank you to all at the airfield today. A rather relaxed day, but enjoyable,
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