The forecasts, and the actual weather en route, looked quite nice this morning but as I approached Brentor the moors were cloud bound and at the club bands of rain were sweeping the site. Time to light the wood burner (Ed: It is autumn you know?) and put the kettle on.
So a slow start to proceedings. The stalwarts set about sorting some of the electrical problems on our machinery while Andy Davey conducted some "dodgy" deals with secondhand Flam units (Ed: As Fleet Manager you can't object to further fitting of Flarm to club and private gliders).
Returning junior Toby Irons arrived smartly with his mum, Sarah and his younger sister Charlotte. The latter made good use of the wood burner and the clubhouse WiFi. Following the progress that Toby and I made on the effects of the controls on Sunday, I delivered the ground lecture on the "effects of the rudder", ready for either I or the Duty Instructor to conduct the airborne demonstration and exercise.
Steve Fletcher was scheduled to be the Duty Introductory Flight Pilot today. He had a busy schedule with four visitors most of whom phoned in to check that we were flying today.
Eventually the drifting rain stopped and the sun came out. Action DGS members! With a number of club members wanting to fly solo we readied two K-13s and two K-8s. The third K-13, CCY, currently offline for an annual inspection was worked upon by Colin later in the day ably assisted by David Bourchier in between his hangar maintenance duties and running a taxi service for the many visitors. Thanks both.
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The rain stopped, the sun came out; Daily inspections were conducted under a low cloudbase
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Steve Fletcher leads trainee David Moorley though a Daily inspection of FGR
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At the east end the cloud base still looked low so we had to send a glider aloft to check.
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Steve and Mike prepare themselves for a weather check flight
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Our intrepid duo above the scattered clouds which were at 800-900 feet above the airfield. (Ed: Maybe we should wait a while before starting instruction and visitors flights.)
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Above the clouds looking down at the runway and a still wet centre track glistening in the sunshine
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A tale of two halves; grim and dark looking towards Blackdown, lovely up above
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So we waited a while and prepared the launch point for action later. We waited until the Duty Instructor gave us the nod. After consideration of the trainees on the flying list Mike Jardine shook it up and flew Toby Irons first leaving David Moorley until later in the day.
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Cloud base rising; cloud definition improving
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Junior Toby Irons ready for the "effects of the rudder" exercise under the watchful eye of the Duty Instructor
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Our first visitor, Neil Black arrived with his wife, Sam, who had given Neil a two-flight voucher for his 60th Birthday. It was reassuring to hear that despite the poor soaring weather we have experienced this summer he hadn't had to wait long to enjoy his flights with Steve Fletcher.
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Visitor Neil Black with IFP Steve
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The weather was turning out to be quite pleasant. The launch point bus provided a lee from the light northerly wind and it was warmer than we might have expected at the end of October. Later the site was becalmed and then the wind backed and filled in from the south (Ed; This might have been the sea breeze but fortunately it didn't seem to affect the limited soaring to be had above the site).
The promising skies encouraged the club solo pilots to take both the K-8s to the sky; Martin Broadway, David Archer (Ed: Increasing his tally of solo flights - great to see, Dave), Malcolm Wilton-Jones, Peter Howarth, John Allan, and me for a hangar flight at the end of of the day (Ed: Well, they were running out of pilots and so had to scrape the barrel).
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Promising skies to the south of the airfield
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Obviously spurred on by the weather and that it was half term three-month temporary member, Elaine Morgan twisted the arm of her daughter to bring her to the club so that she could enjoy another set of wonderful views of the Devon countryside. I had flown Elaine in August on her two trial flights but I was trumped by the Duty Instructor who flew Elaine this afternoon.
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86 year-old Elaine Morgan returned to the club to benefit from her three-month's temporary membership to have some more fun and fly with the Duty Instructor (Ed: I suspect that Mike was aiming to have the widest range of ages of student in his log book 14 - 86).
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The Duty Instructor thinks "Ahh! So what are we going to do with David Moorley today?"
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| Looking north to St. Michael de Rupe Church at Brentor |
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David closes in on our well known land mark
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And manages to keep the yaw string straight while the instructor is watching
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Moving on to our next trial flight. Terry and Kerry Neild came to the airfield from their new home in Lamerton to celebrate Terry's birthday present - a two flight voucher. After discussion Terry magnanimously let his wife, Kerry, enjoy his Birthday present. Enjoy it, she certainly did!
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Kerry Neild all smiles while about to enjoy her unexpected flights.
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Our final visitor was Trelawny Williams accompanied by his wife. In this case his better half wasn't interested in going aloft but was keen that Trelawny continued to work down his bucket list; last year a flight in a Tiger Moth, this year a flight in a glider, and next year a hot air balloon flight (Ed: What a busy man!).
What of the fourth visitor. It turns out that due to car problems he had to cancel as he couldn't make the journey from Bristol today. We hope that the car is repaired and he can rebook soon.
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Trelawny Williams ticks another one off his bucket list" with IFP Steve
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We wrapped up the day with a series of hangar landings; David Moorey and Mike following a practice low level launch failure, Peter Howarth flew the other K-13 solo with a go around practice launch failure (Ed: Following the CFI's edict for all instructors to remain current on launch failures themselves), John Allan and and I in the K-8s.
"Man of the Match" was looking like Peter Howarth with 13 minutes for most of the day, but canny Malcolm managed 16 minutes later, but on the penultimate flight of the day John Allan enjoyed some thermaling to the northwest of the airfield in an interesting meteorological feature (Ed: I was not sure if it was the edge of a front or some convergence). When I took the last launch frustratingly I hadn't got the height to safely join him and so made use of the lift coming off the valleys to the south of the airfield in the southerly wind. John and I landed at the same time; He 17 minutes and me a paltry 7 minutes. That notwithstanding, it was a good end of the day as we compared notes whilst dragging our K-8s in turn down the cross track to the hangar.
So today we made 30 flights. Three visitors, three trainees/three-month members, six club members flying making solo flights in the K-8, and a ground school lecture. Thanks to the winch drivers, especially Phil Hardwick and Andy Davey who didn't get to fly today.
Soaring at the end of October. Who'd a thought it?
Gavin Short
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