With Wednesday’s flying cancelled due to strong wind and rain there was a mad rush to de-rig a couple of private gliders before the first named storm Austen arrives on Thursday night, as well as the DG505 for its forthcoming excursion to Shropshire. Whilst this was happening Peter Smith, armed with a box full of tools attacked the briefing room ceiling to expose the rafters etc to assess the construction for the forthcoming refurbishment of the clubhouse. All this caused a bit of a delay but once started Mike Sloggett, Peter Smith and Shaun Dayman started to steadily work though the flying list which included Fatima and Misha from Exeter Uni who continued their introduction to gliding.
With some impressive looking cloud streets around conditions for some extended flights looked promising. But, alas it was generally not the case, even with a 2000ft aerotow. There was a period at about 13:00 when it all came together with a lucky few getting over 40 mins, but that disappeared as quickly as it started.
Andy Williams was tuggie for the day, standing in for CFI Mark Courtney who was preparing himself for the forthcoming week away with the Juniors at the Mynd (by having an extended lie down in the sun at a secret hideaway somewhere in Spain). Numerous aerotows were taken, some trying something different by practising a ‘descend on tow’ exercise.
With an ever-watchful eye on the approaching weather system and with the flying list completed we put everything away and closed the hangar doors as the rain started. A successful day flying coupled with great timing. – Mark Layton
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