When the alarm clock went off this morning I was greeted by the sight of wet roads, mist, and low cloud. The moors to the east of my house were not visible. Then I remembered that it's Bank Holiday Monday in Britain as I prepared my
sandwiches and apple for the day, which would explain the miserable weather.
Alas, there was to be no
shirking as I was the Duty Basic Instructor and the CFI, today's Duty instructor, had assured us that there would only
be showers, so obviously we would be flying.
www.yr.no
confirmed what I thought; a strong to moderate breeze from the west
south-west and rain all day. But Skysight was reporting that the cloud
base would be high enough from some soaring in the afternoon perhaps up
to 3,000 feet above ground level. So it was to be a battle of the
forecasts.
Well I'm sure I could find something
to do as Fleet Manager although I doubt I would see our BGA Inspector Colin who, if he had any sense, would stay under the covers this morning (Ed: Late update: Colin arrived at 1000ish to find the site deserted). If
not there was always the simulator and a chance for me to practice my Assistant Category instructor patter as part of my training for the next
stage in my instructing career.
I was first at the club so I opened up, got the kettle on, and listened to the rain drumming on the clubhouse roof. Rick then arrived and we decided on some jobs and computer house keeping that had to be done. The forecast for the wind at 1400 precluded our solo trial flight visitor (Ed: Late update: The afternoon looked lovely at home but the wind was strong and blustery so the cancellation call was correct).
 |
It was still raining at 0750
|
 |
But just an hour later the sky was looking good.
|
 |
With interesting high cirrus above the Motor Transport hangar
|
 |
Heading to the Launch Hut at the west end to retrieve a hand-held radio antenna
|
 |
Admiring Dave Archer's handiwork in rebuilding the airband antenna after storm Mathis had rolled in recently
|
 |
The view to the east where moor were still enveloped by clouds
|
 |
The "Rack" devoid of gliders, people, or even cars
|
After reorganising the radio charging board (Ed: So who was the DGS pilot who thought that the ICOM radio is charged in a Yaesu cradle and not the ICOM cradle? They are clearly marked!) and swapping over the glider batteries that were recharging I started packing up.
Rick was conducting some launch point laptop housekeeping and getting the printer configured correctly. He reassured me that he would be close behind me so regrettably I made tracks for home as it would have been flyable from about 1130 to 1600 with some nice lift if we had some more members to allow us to fly (Ed: Maybe members were "flown out" after Friday and Saturday?).
Later, Colin called me at home and we planned Wednesday's work; to reinstate the ailerons on K-8, GDK's wings and inspect both wings and the elevator. A fine tuning of the radio antennae is one of the few outstanding jobs and to fit a brand-new safety cushion (Ed: Thanks Mrs Bennett for a great job) before GDK can be put back on line (Ed: Ready for some better flying weather).
Gavin Short
No comments:
Post a Comment