In the absence of the usual Wednesday instructors, JB and I stepped in to avoid wasting what looked to be an exciting day based on the forecasts. These suggested a band of early showers then a classic mix of ridge and spirited thermals before a potential band of rain in the evening.
I was greeted at the locked gate at 8:45 by Paul Ives and Don Gibbs and by 9:00 JB and I had just the pair of them for company! Weather watching it looked to be playing out as advertised and coffee while the showers blew through and our numbers swelled to critical mass to operate.
Richard Roberts, Andy P, Paul Medlock, Nick Harrison and Pete Startup helped set up the field and we got the K21s out and picketed down. Not surprisingly Skydive SouthWest said the sky was ours when phoned and Exeter Tower wished me luck. It was definitely a “Blue Card” day and once calibrated as such I took the first flight with Paul Ives. It was all JB and I hoped for with an exciting mix of very energetic thermals and ridge filling the gaps – when it could! Paul was able to experience some of the soaring first hand but it did need some suitably spirited manoeuvres to make the best of it. We were seeing 10kts up in some of the best bits but ragged the best average was 4kts over 4 turns. High approaches and plenty of speed were key! After conferring with JB we opted for instructor only launches and landings except for blue card holders…
Andy Pincombe flew with Don Gibbs In the second K21 and JB had flights with Nick H and Malcolm Vest. Richard R and Pete S flew together and foolishly chased a thermal before getting to the ridge… how I laughed as they drifted back and never made the “safe embrace “ of the bowl! Old school ridge lessons needed for those thermal jockeys – Pete Warren where were you?!
I finished off flying with Paul Medlock and we had a good session talking about strategies for getting the most out of the day with the strong wind (drift) and broken super powerful thermals on the ridge..
A very successful day, all flew who wanted to and if you the constitution for it, baring a lunch time shower, there were hours of soaring to be had! Thanks to those who turned out , we managed to successfully operate on a skeleton staff and JB and I got to see how the nerve centre, Sally Hender’s “North Hill Tower” works! – John Pursey
