Last day of the course today and the first day to start with no rain! The morning started as usual by getting the gliders out of the hangar and washed. Mike kicked off the first of the flights in the Perkoz lasting only 6 minutes before returning, this theme continued throughout the morning with many short flights due to the lack of lift within reaching distance and the ridge not being active due to a crosswind.
However, after lunch things improved leading to many longer flights and even some soaring. Juniors who can fly the junior were lucky enough to get some brilliant flights including an hour and a half and even a 2 hour flight!
Sadly the good flying was short-lived when later in the afternoon the wind switched to a headwind making launching difficult and there being a lot of sink around and barely any lift. Flying was put on a pause to see if conditions improved and eventually we decided to send John Borland up in his DG300 as a “sacrifice” to see what the conditions were like. He shortly returned shooting down the downwind and turning in early due to his altitude.
Overall not the best weather but lots of good flying happened throughout the day. Congratulations to Julian West for completing his field landing test with Ian Mitchell and a very big thank you for all of the helpers such as Richard and Arthur Lean, Dave Perriam, Ashley Thomas and John Borland and the instructors Mike Sloggett, Steve Westlake and Mark Courtney. A very good course and hopefully many more to come. – Harry Dunbar
