Another cold crisp day, but with less wind than yesterday. As the westerly wind was quite light, it was decided to operate from the clubhouse to save churning up the (frozen and/or damp) grass, which had the added advantage of ensuring that people could pop into the clubhouse intermittently to warm up or eat Mary's soup.
The good weather brought out lots of the wage slaves, and we had a very full flying list plus three visitors. The team from Friday decided that the wires needed replacing, so first task of the day was a winch wire refit - the tug battery was also struggling in the cold so although we had the kit out promptly we had a late start to flying. Damien popped in in his yellow cub to say hello first thing.
Dave P and John W were on duty, with Paul F helping out, and Rowan flying the tug. Roger & Clive both took aerotows, and the rest of us kept the winch busy till last light, getting excellent launches in spite of the mild crosswind. A big thanks to Paul D, Eric & Lech for driving the winch all day, and to Dean Batty for driving wire retrieve for much of the afternoon. Danny C and Danny E both arrived with Mary and got current again, as did Robb B with the inevitable cable break practice. Robin had his own solo cable break in the K8, and also flew the Falke.
Dave P, Brent, Paul D, Lech, Tess, Paul F and Rowan all flew too. Rowan took the winch duration record for the day, managing 13 minutes in some sort of 'stealth wave' over the road alongside Tysoe.
Our last flight landed at dusk, and as we all thought that someone else had gone for the glider, the pilots were abandoned in the eight acre for some time before we noticed....just about the same time that John rag the clubhouse to see if anyone was coming to get them! We completed the hangar pack in the dark, and had just sat down in the clubhouse for a welcome cup of tea when all the lights went out. Good news is that it wasn't just us - the whole area was in blackout. Normal club activity continued in the bar with torches until the lights came back on 20 minutes later!
A very enjoyable day - good to see so many people there, and to get so many flights in even though we didn't start flying as early as we'd have liked.
