Gavin and the midweek team got things moving early on, with two new students (Rob & Reuben) to fly and plenty of club members to help. John Dono turned up to fly with Tim H and got out DVX, and the K8 and Astir were soon at the launchpoint too. The weather took a while to get going, with no-one managing to stay up much before 1:30pm although it looked promising for while before that which kept everyone trying! Eventually the single seaters started staying up, and then the K13s started doing cable breaks. Gavin sent Rob Couper solo in the afternoon which was a great start to the week's flying.
Graham P went out east in 60 to Bedford. I also went east though I turned back too early by Sywell - predictably conditions improved as soon as I set off back so I continued on to Bidford where the sky looked great...
John le Coyte flew the Presidents Triangle, while Russell & Phil visited Silverstone and some of the other local airfields, including Enstone and Barford St John. JYR stayed airborne till after 7pm - the thermals continued much later than we had all expected.
Now I'm sure all you locals know that Barford is not a good place to land, but one of the Shenington Regionals pilots was not aware and managed to make a safe landing there - not quite sure how!! It's covered in wires, though it's not so obvious from the photo below taken in the poor vis in the cloud shadows. Don't be tempted to try landing as there are usually sheep where there aren't any obvious wire structures:
Back to the launchpoint and the Shenington K6 mafia has spread its hooks with Alistair Frier and Norman Danby taking over ownership of Dave Weitzel & James Stafford's old K6E HJD, now lovingly restored after many years sitting in a trailer. Alistair was getting his hand in flying CPJ on Monday. There is also a new Skylark syndicate forming, with Tony Taylor and two new club members. The K8 and Astir were kept busy all Monday, and I lost count of the cable breaks being visited on the K13s. Kath provided excellent launches as always - nice to be here during the weekday operation for a change. John R was tug pilot for some trial lessons during the afternoon - the 2 tugs came back from Nympsfield so he had a choice of three for once.
Back at work in the Birmingham TMA now, but hope you're all still having fun at Edgehill.