Forecast looked great and lots of people turned up so it was not a surprise that as soon as we got the gliders out, the weather retaliated by chucking it down!! Luckily this gave Connor the chance to fix the tractor which had broken down while towing out the winch to its spot for the day....
The Langlands were fettling the DG1000, the Donovans were working on the motorglider, and a team took CCC apart so that Phil M and Rowan could do some maintenance. Eventually the rest of us got flying and though the day promised very little initially - the fantastic launches of 1400 to 1700 feet being interleaved with low cloud - we eventually saw some small changes that meant we had some flights extended by the ridge effect.
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| George launching Lech |
Paul Fletcher had the longest flight of the day at 34 minutes with plenty others having long flights for the time of year. A number of us like myself and Paul M were just happy to get current again, with the rest making sure that they stayed current. A large number of people flew (must have had most of the instructors present too!) though we never got the tug into the air. An enjoyable day in the end, and the gliders were all put away clean and shining, courtesy of the washing down by the showers at the start of the day.
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| Weak link lottery! |
Graham models his patent jeans knee protection device!! Perhaps not the best day for wearing white trainers.
More scudding cloud in the air, but signs of promise with some blue patches showing through. We never saw any sunshine (well, except during hangar packing when we had a pink sunset) but it wasn't a bad day for January.
A big thank you to Connor, Phil & Lech for sorting out the winch & vehicles so that we could keep flying, and to Eric & Lech for winching all day. Photos from Rob F, Mick F and Rowan.
Tess
Tess
PS Rumours that my Subaru is the newest retrieve vehicle have been greatly exaggerated!!