Sunday 17th December

Sunday commenced in glorious sunshine but with only a few members arriving to fly, Tom had decided that if insufficient members wanted to fly by 10:00hrs the day would be scrubbed, four of us had turned up before 10:00hrs so flying was on!

Looking at the launch point after the rain

Unfortunately the vehicles and winch hadn’t run for a couple of weeks, the tractor turned out to be the only bit of kit with a charged battery so it was used to start the rest of the equipment. CCC was dragged out plus Trish and Alan rigged their DG for an airing, by 11:30hrs 13 members and guests were at the launch-point. A heavy rain shower spoiled play at around 13:00hrs, CCC was temporarily put back in it’s hangar and we took lunch in the Club House, Mary’s soup and cakes all vanished in approximately 20 minutes!

 

lunchtime soup....

 The sun reappeared at 14:00hrs and flying resumed until 16:00hrs, by which time we had 13 launches, great fun! 

Lech

Saturday 5th Dec

No flying sadly, as the weather was all a bit rowdy ('Storm Desmond' apparently - what's with the naming of storms these days? We're going to be out of letters very quickly....) and the wind was far too strong to get gliders out. Instead, people drifted in late afternoon and helpers decorated the clubhouse and restaurant while Liz prepared turkey and veg plus traditional puddings for a Christmas Meal. Mid evening about 30 of us sat down with a few drinks to enjoy a festive dinner followed by Christmas pud and brandy sauce. We then retired to the bar for a few drinks and lots of chat.

A big thanks to Liz and helpers for a lovely evening.

Don't forget to sign up for the Annual Dinner in February 20th 2016.

Friday 4th December

An intrepid band of club members, brought together via the "winterflying" email group assembled at the airfield all desperate to take to the air after so many miserable non-flying days.  At the start of the day Christine and Phil appeared, to ferry the supermunk to Hus Bos for its service. Then everyone mucked in and, despite the lack of any rostered crew, the flying ran remarkably smoothly.  The weather was dry and sometimes even sunny, but with a cool and brisk wind and VERY gusty.  Just the sort of conditions to blow off the cobwebs and test old skills!  K13 CCC was put through its paces by a number of club members (including Robin, Gail, Gavin, Eric, Bob K, mick F, Paul B and myself), meanwhile Alan and Trish flew their DG 300 and George brought out his newly acquired PIK20 to try it out.  To add to the activity, Mick continued work extending the heating system to the restaurant/briefing room building and Liz was hard at work preparing for tomorrow's Christmas meal.  I mustn't forget to mention Kath and Jane, as always hard at it keeping the club clean and provided with supplies.

Jon Carlton