Phil joined us today with his DG300 having been unavoidably detained by his daughter's wedding. But before he arrived, we had the morning brief; no NOTAMS to worry about and little to look forward to, with plenty of dense cloud cover all day. But we would give it a go and set up on runway 03.
The club had a trial lesson at 1030 which was an aerotow to 3,000 feet. Sam, the Duty Instructor, found some wave at 2,400 feet and managed to climb at 1/4 knot. He had to abandon the climb when the wave gap in the clouds closed. That set the scene for the weather for the rest of the day; a door slammed shut!
After the tug landed, it wasn't available for the rest of the day (Ed: A planned evolution rather than a defect), which put paid to Scratch's plans to fly Val again on an aerotow in the DG300. So Val ran the tower, having built on her experience yesterday and advised by Sam to be firm on insisting the name of the pilot for the log (Ed: Her maxim - No Name, No Fly!).
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Andy's Libelle "M" awaits its moment
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There was a lot of looking at the thick cloud cover and wondering. Rather than thinking about it, Hugh managed 36 minutes of scraping in very weak lift.
The focus of the day was Sean's conversion to his Libelle. Once again, he flew the K-23 to get in the groove (Ed: at 22 minutes, that's a long groove, Man!). Then he flew three flights in his Libelle. He achieved a 17-minute flight in very weak lift on his second flight. On his third flight, he had to release early due to the cloud base. He later remarked that you had to fly the Libelle accurately, otherwise it
would let you know that you weren't and would grumble (Ed: Like a wife, did you say?).
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Sean happy to be in his Libelle at last (Ed: And on an airfield rather than sitting in his garage going Brrrm, Brrrm!)
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Adam helps Sean prepare
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Take your time, Sean. No one is waiting.
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"Cable on please"
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And off he goes
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There was a lot of waiting on the ground today
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Sean, oblivious of the photographer as he runs through his pre-flight checks
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Sean's steed safely back on the ground
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In other flying later, Hugh managed to fly for 18 minutes and Mike 14 minutes in their Club Libelle. Val and Scratch flew in the DG500 for a short flight, launching on the winch. Later, Andy managed 35 mins and Hugh 35 minutes (Ed: Wow Hugh, trumping Andy!).
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Scratch flies Val (Ed: Note the murkiness of the sky)
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Peter prepares to break a blue weak link on the ground run.
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A plethora of pundits offer their advice to Peter on how not to break a weak link on his second attempt
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Phil's DG300 waits forlornly, but didn't fly
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At 1630 spots of rain started so we finished flying took all the gliders back to the trailers to derig and put in their boxes, or dress them in their pyjamas (Ed: You mean put in the trailers or their all weather covers).
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The convoy assembles ready to drive to the other end of the runway and the trailers
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My Standard Cirrus was the last in the line to go home
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An arty shot of CNN (Ed: You were obviously bored while waiting for the last flight of the day to launch)
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Today's extravaganza was John Allen's chilli and rice (Ed: We heard that the BGA has approved his Silver distance (50 km) and hence he had completed his Silver badge. Congratulations, John). The expedites then duly celebrated, courtesy of the case of red wine left over from Phil's daughter's (Rachel) wedding (Ed: Thanks Phil).
So a relatively quiet day but a big milestone for Sean (Ed: Congratulations Sean).
Gavin Short
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