Tis the season to be jolly/snotty (Ed: Select as appropriate). Unfortunately the latter option applied to our Duty Instructor today... laid low with a cough, a cold, and a poor nights sleep so we had to do without his services (Ed: Peter get well soon). That meant that only licensed pilots could fly either in their own aircraft or the club K-8.
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| There was another blue car at the club today (Ed: If you were to choose would you choose the one-day old Tesla 3 or the fifty-four year old MGC GT? Does this mean that the Treasurer designate is going to get mains electricity laid on to the club so that he can get home?) |
Regrettably, I had to cancel the two One Day Courses: Robert Howe, whom I fortunately managed to speak to before he left home in Newton Abbot. However, as I was trying to
call Sue Syson she walked into the clubhouse. So I showed her around the site and had a chat about gliding, and what she could expect when she rebooked her One Day Course, before she headed home to Mill Hill, nr. Gulworthy. Today's cancellation of visitors was a shame as I was looking forward to flying the two courses as the weather forecast was benign and the sun was due to come out too. I sense that December's weather is going to be considerably different from November's weather.
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| The two Steves discuss the merits of their winter romper suits |
Despite the lack of a Duty Instructor the majority stayed and set up the airfield. While this was going on I
progressed most of Guy Balmer's induction card. Winch drivers Mike
Bennett and John Smith launched a lucky quartet of pilots: Steve
Fletcher, me, Malcolm W-J, and fresh from instructing that morning (Ed: That would be learner car drivers on the
ground and not budding pilots) Steve Lewis.
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| A canny Malcolm chooses the exact moment to launch (Ed: Notice patches of blue appearing in the cloud cover) |
The day's scores on the doors:
Steve F: 9 and 5 minutes.
Gavin: 5 and 9 minutes.
Malcolm: 16 and 56 minutes (For those on the ground he was tantalising visible throughout his flight).
Steve L: 7 and 6 minutes (Ed: Wasn't there a delay before his second flight while he collected his sun glasses from his car as the weather improved nicely?).
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| And Malcolm returns from his long flight in a gin-blue sky |
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| The boundary fence was down allowing for an interesting background to the K-8's approach |
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| And to spot land at the very edge of the field (Ed: Bravo) |
In
the glider trailer park Colin and Andy were busy with the Annual
Inspection of his Libelle. Apparently all was well but, as always there were a few follow up items for Andy to take care of.
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| Colin examines the Libelle's air brake mechanism in great detail |
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| Andy in supporting mode for the Annual Inspection |
Down
in the hangar Dave Bouchier and Andrew Downjng were hard at work on
some maintenance tasks. When the launch point laptop developed a fault
Andrew took it away and made preparations to re-host the launch point
software (Ed: An update. The screen on the laptop is now fixed). The tower operator, Guy Balmer, took the transition to paper
in his stride and proved adept at the operation of both the ground and air band
radios.
While DGS members were faced with a setback this morning they rallied round and managed to get four of us flying a total of eight flights, which was just shy of two hours of flying. Thanks to all who willingly made this happen even if they weren't able to fly on this occasion.
Gavin Short
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