What a great day! Arriving at the club at the late hour of 10am (shame on us) we found the launchpoint already busy in the eight acre and the cloud filled with promising looking clouds. Clive was on the winch, and Paul N was flying with our three visitors from Dublin Gliding Club - Philip, Shaun and Andras - who had come over to do some winch flying as a change from their normal aerotow operation. We were a bit short of private gliders with people being away at comps or on holiday, but Robin had G2 out, and we rigged H20 so that John could go xc. Poor Russell and Phil had to watch the sky with disappointment whilst they examined the Duo for the latest airbrake AD, and derigged her so she can be signed off as safe.
John W went off at 11am and flew 300km with a task from Edgehill to Upwood GC, then Didcot, Silverstone and home, bringing it back early enough for me to have a flight with a wander over to the West where the clouds were disappearing. It was a beautiful day to be in the air - vis was good, and the fields are getting better too!
Steve Codd popped in with a 'landout' from the club class nationals, in which he is competing in a twin Acro. Now that takes cojones! Christine took him back to Bicester behind the chipmunk.
The day was windy and it proved quite difficult to get away from the winch. Dave P managed an incredible 1700ft launch in the K8 without pole bending, and then later in the day managed 45 minutes off a poor (winch driver hiccup) winch launch, Robin was away an hour in G2, and there were bits of soaring in the two seaters. H20 had two nice flights from aerotow, but that's cheating!
We did lots of launches, and then Liz cooked a roast chicken dinner for those who stayed for the evening. Forecast for Sunday looking better than promised....
Odd things seen Saturday: man chasing sheep round the top field - in front of the winch - with a car and trailer (! don't ask, I don't know where either came from, or to whence they went); man standing on top of winch trying to find lost cable/chute in barley field.
Lessons learnt on Saturday : You can't launch a K21 on a blue weak link.....well, not all the way to the top!; yellow strops don't show up well in barley fields; camera's won't take pictures if you leave the memory card at home in the card reader (Note lack of accompanying photos!).