With high pressure over the UK, a day with moderate easterly breeze, the prospect of some possible soaring in some thermal activity spurred the Sunday Soarers into getting things ready. Two K13's and the Astir were inspected and taken to the launch point. After the morning briefing it was time to start flying with the first launch at 09:44.
Before things got busier it was time to introduce David Osment to launch failure practice. A demonstration followed by his first attempt sees David progressing well. His third flight was a higher real break, which was quickly turned into a demonstration of a go around launch failure.
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| K13 launches. Will they get to the top? |
Duty BI Phil Hardwick welcomed Junior One Day Course member, Arthur Fairclough. After the required briefings they settled into a K13 for their first flights.
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| Arthur and Phil ready to go. |
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| And off they go. |
Training continued with Viktor Skochko and Julia Old. Both enjoyed soaring flights of 23 minutes and 20 minutes respectively. The last trainee to step into the front seat was Freddie Purkiss. A 32 minute soaring flight to over 3000ft gave us chance to revisit stalling characteristics during the descent. All trainees enjoyed further flights during the afternoon.
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| View of the airfield and the moors beyond. |
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| Plymouth Sound and River Tamar. |
Sean Westrope who had been doing a sterling job on the winch came to the launch point to enjoy a 49 minute soaring flight in the Astir. When he returned he the relieved Ed Borlase so he could fly his K6.
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| Ed's view of the K13. |
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| K6 seen from the K13 |
Steve Fletcher maintained back seat currency by taking Ray Boundy and later David Osment for soaring flights of 18 minutes and 32 minutes respectively.
22 flights with all enjoying some soaring, with heights above 3000ft being achieved. Flight of the day was claimed by Ed who only launched at 15:38 for a flight of 1 hour 48 minutes. The day seemed to get better later in the afternoon. Thank you to Sean and Ed for sharing the winching with some help from George Purkiss retrieving and starting to learn how to winch.
Peter Howarth
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