Saturday 30th May

See Phil Hebdon in his red K6, making good use of a wonderful day. Amazing that Danny Chapman could photo AND IDENTIFY these invaders....into Shenington thermals.....It was a very good day yesterday, topped off by Alex Phillips' mum Diana actually having a flight (though she had said NO NO NEVER) with Rowan Griffin in the K21, and she came down RADIANT!. Son Alex was quite pleased with his mother. Daddy Andy Phillips will be gobsmacked!

A special thanks to Rowan and to Paul Fletcher for stepping in and instructing. Paul flew with our junior pilots, Danny Earl and Alex Phillips, and a lot of other people. He is a worthy instructor, one of the best and we were lucky to have him on the day stepping in for Russell at the last minute when Russell was injured hoisting his boat into a low loader up in Scotland. Get well soon, Russell!

Mary

More Bank Hol Weekend News

Saturday 23^rd:  Cloud base 900 ft. dull, grey.  Not much expectation but the team went to it with a will and we flew 25 launches, Bruno,   Paul N and Mick doing tuition and later, after a strenuous day with BETH she was washed polished inspected and rigged in time for 4 syndicate member flights before the end of the day by John, Lech, Andy, Mick and Eric with Lucy coming along as ballast (at 19:00!!). 

Everybody rallied round and the syndicate would like to thank all those there who helped, including Dean and Robert (the latest BETH syndicate member) and Paul Duffy.  Mike from Bowland Forest, who are paying us their annual visit, also put his tall shoulder to the wingtip, literally.

The club cat has just weaned 4 youngsters. (Warning – those of you who, like me, were looking forward to seeing these small lumps of fur will be disappointed. They have already been ‘re-homed’ with Christine & other club members. tw)

Sunday 24^th:    9 launches.  Rain kept us on the ground in the morning; afternoon was dry but grey.  Bruno kept us to the straight and narrow as soon as it was flyable, and Gavin turned up to fly Paul Noonan’s DG202/17 which is for sale   Robert Batty resolo’ed.  14 persons fell into the Indian Queen and were somewhat disappointed at the service, although the food was good.  But 3 hrs to take a starter and main course!

Monday 25^th:  Cloud base even lower.  8 launches.  Mary brought Danny Chapman as well as Lesley, and Dave Addison called in from Kenley.  Bruno managed 6 tuition flights. (As you can see from the earlier post from Mary, in spite of the weather those present thoroughly enjoyed their day! tw)

Eric (ntd)

Monday 25th May (Bank hols!)

Mary was at the club on Monday with Danny Chapman & Lesley C. They both had good flights and were planning to come back later in the week to continue the good work. Gail took the following photos with Danny's camera.....thanks Danny....

Not sure what Lesley is trying to do here? disco fever??

Ready to go?

Saturday 9th May

Guess what?? Grey and windy weather forecast for the weekend, which I imagine is why it was quiet! The usual suspects sat around drinking tea in the morning waiting for the cloud base to rise, and the potential rain to pass, which it did around midday. Leaving the glider fettlers/repairers (and Derrick working on the simulater), we got out DVX and decamped to the eight acre where our three attendant instructors (Dave P, John W and Paul F on a day off!) took it in turns to fly our various pupils and visitors. Both John & Paul had soaring flights with the Badby boys, a mixture of ridge and thermal in spite of fairly grey looking skies. 

Rowan rigged C2 for the first time this season and tried out his new instrument panel. Later in the afternoon it looked rather good....!! Had a late attempt at the ridge with Paul which was more of a reduced downward glide, but fun nevertheless. Gail & Robin flew together as well. Rowan managed to fit in an aerotow with a trial lesson before we ran out of pilots.  

Thanks to Robin & Shaun for doing all of the winching. True to form it was a beautifully sunny evening, and we all went down the pub, once we'd tried out the new beer from our local brewery at Sugarswell!

May Bank Hols

The curse of the Bank Hol weekend stuck again last week. A few dogged individuals managed to brave the weather on Saturday and Sunday, as Eric reports:

"Saturday,  Gary managed a creditable 21 mins in DVX, Russell flew a couple of TL’s and Brent and Lech kept the ball in the air.

Sunday had very blustery winds.  We launched from the short hard and I got 1400’ launch but that apart,  Phil flew Mary’s mate, Leslie, 5 times and Mary once. Conditions very sporting....."

Monday was less disappointing than the weekend, and was forecast to be sunny and thermic! Arrived at the club just in time to see Graham disappearing off into the blue yonder in 60. Rigged H20 and ambled up to the launchpoint, where Bruno had been off soaring in DVX with a course member, and G2 had been soaring off the winch. Paul M had his Cirrus ready for launch and Paul N was about to go xc in his DG800…..

 

Pinged off a few more launches from the eight acre, then swopped ends due to the stiff South westerlies, and moved to the North end of the long run. Top cover began to come in after lunch, then it went a bit blue, then cycled again to give some nice clouds before the top cover encroached again after 3pm. 

Jon C, Dave P, Jon L, Derrick,  John W, Tess, Charles and Bruno et al all had nice soaring flights, and we had CCC & the Skylark out as well as DVX. I flew when the sky had a second lease of life, and though it was difficult to get away, once above 1500' it was easier to find thermals. Got some nice shots of the airfield and the very bright crops around…

Clive & Phil went flying in the chipmunk, and Paul M went off in the Falke when the day got less soarable. We had a late visitor from Aston Down en route home. Graham was last one home having completed almost 400km of a 530km task.  Altogether a nice day and the best slot from the weekend. Thanks to Bruno & Kath for their usual efficient running of the airfield.