With different forecasts giving various wind directions, the main decision for the day was how to set up the field. Both wind socks showed a more easterly component the winch was moved to the west end. A K13 and the Puchacz for club and visitor flying were taken to the launch point. These were joined by privateers 2 x Libelles, K6, Open Cirrus and Mini Nimbus.
After a quick check flight for myself, I started training flights with Freddie Purkiss. Straight off the top of the launch we found a thermal and were climbing to cloudbase of 2500ft. We were surprised that none of the privateers were heading to the launch point.
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| Freddie at 1800ft. |
Freddie finished his flights with a couple of good landings and was happy with his flying. Another junior member, Jamie Young, arrived with his family. Dad Martin was lined up to fly with duty BI Phil Hardwick and enjoyed a soaring flight and saw what his son enjoys so much.
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| Martin ready with Phil. |
Privateers Ed Borlase (K6), Andy Davey (Libelle) and Steve Fletcher (Open Cirrus) all launched. Ed was to have an attempt for his 5 hour flight.
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| K6 soaring high. |
Belinda Gray arrived for her trial flight and enjoyed a short soaring flight with Phil.
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| Belinda with Phil. |
Meanwhile returning trainee Julia Old enjoyed two soaring flights with me with plenty of hands on controls to regain some of the skills from 30 years ago. The next visitor for Phil to fly was Ray Barlow. He chose to combine his flights into one longer flight during which he enjoyed getting to grips with the primary effects of controls.
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| Ray Barlow all set for his flight. |
The next trainee to fly with me was Saturday soarer Viktor Skochko. After a quick circuit on his first launch we launched again for a second flight. We were in lift straight off the launch. Viktor got a bit excited as we climbed through 2000ft and was marvelling about the fantastic view as we topped out just over 3000ft. This was the highest he has been and was his longest flight. We finished with Viktor executing a perfect unassisted landing. He left with a very big smile on his face.
Whilst this was happening, Sean Westrope had flown, but returned after 44 minutes to relieve John Allen who had been on the winch since we had started flying. This enabled John to fly his Mini Nimbus. His second launch rewarded him with a flight of just over two hours.
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| John's view of Meldon. |
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| The start of a possible convergence. |
The last visitor arrived to fly with Phil. Johns Prowse enjoyed two flights including a soaring flight.
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| John happy and looking forward to his flight. |
Alex Michelsen lives nearby and popped in to watch how the club operated and confirmed to himself he wanted to join up. After signing the paperwork there was time for him to have a couple of flights with me. The second was a soaring flight where he was soon performing some gentle turns and was amazed that he was actually flying and also could look down on his house as we flew around the circuit.
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| Alex settling in ready to fly. |
Ed Borlase returned after 3 hours 49 minutes. He flew into a blue hole and couldn't climb back away to continue. This was flight of the day. Not quite what he wanted, but a small reward on the day. Only 22 flights, but all had a soaring flight and an average flight time of 49 minutes.
Thank you to all at the club, particularly John for his long stint on the winch until a relief could be found.
Peter Howarth
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