At last- flying at North Hill!
The reduction in rainfall through last week had been enough to give the field a chance to drain just enough to allow operations and the last day of meteorological winter delivered more than a hint of spring. The call to arms from Mark Courtney the night before was well-judged and the club a hive of activity by 8am with pitch inspection giving a thumbs up to proceed with caution with setting up the field for winching operations.
Personally, having stayed over in my van post Team Eagle get together on Friday night, I was amazed at the number of folks about as I rolled out of my bed! The field clearly still had its soft spots, notably near the hangar and along the south side but the winch retrieve line looked sound through pullout of the first cables. The whole club fleet was out and was joined by a brace of Discus (230 and V5) DG200 JDP and ASG29 G29. A decentish cloud base and robust thermals that got better and better locally with marked cloud streets. Every effort was made to make sure everyone got a least a flight to help with recency and for those lucky enough to launch near the middle of the day staying up was a cinch. The privateers found things less easy as they headed west so no epic X Countries to report but still, it was a winter’s day after all!
41 launches were logged which was a fabulous tonic to the weather blues we had all been having and perhaps more would have been had but for the need to curtail operations in support of emergency events at Dunkeswell. A sad day there and our thoughts are with those affected.
The field at North Hill was not completely unscathed with some localised deep wheel ruts but nothing a bit of careful treading down can’t fix. Significantly, DSGC was back flying after one of the longest enforced weather shutdowns and with spring now upon us, hopefully things can only improve. – John Pursey
