From the start of the day, James Flory was on duty as the only instructor, and at last the paperwork for HCX has arrived, The Grob, K21, DG505, Perkoz and Junior were pulled out of the hangar, although only the K21, Junior and Perkoz were taken to the other end ready for flying.
The morning started with well-formed cumulus popping up across the valley, alongside an optimistic RASP forecast with five-star conditions across much of the country, getting the private owners excited. Launching from the west end, there was a light north-easterly wind, with winch launches reaching around 1,400 ft.
James Hood controlled the Launchpoint while testing his new system for winch launching which seemed to be a huge success hopefully moving into a new era of safer launching.
By 12 o’clock, people were beginning to stay up, which triggered the launch of the privateers. Over 10 aerotows went out back-to-back, with several optimistic tasks being planned.
With cloudbase reaching over 5,000 ft in places and some very strong and boisterous thermals, the day continued to produce good conditions. This allowed several notable and impressive flights, including Andy Bachelor achieving his Silver height gain by more than 500 ft, John Allan completing 500 km for Diamond Distance, and Shaun Dayman completing his first 300 km for Gold Distance, Diamond Goal. Not to mention the other 300kms (stations task) by the pundits 230, 711, V5 and SM, and Mark Layton exploring further than usual.
KP “500 Km Diamond Badge flight (TBC) A little slow on the Somerset levels on the way out to Oxford, couldn’t quite get the hang of the thermals. Slightly overdeveloped by Oxford South, but much better as the day went on and the following wind going SW made the flight back to Devon quite quick. Great flying out and return to SixPenny Handley past Yeovil. I very nearly gave up at 1700hrs at about Compton Abbas – But with comforting words from friends to say don’t worry about landing out, and a very good climb to 6000ft, encourgaed me to do the last 20Km to SIX and worry about getting home after it. As it happens, the thermals were great and the day lasted for a lot longer than I thought. One of our local pilots just landed at 1940hrs saying it was still working!! What a great day.” – John Allan
With a relatively short training list and HCX back, James finished the day’s flying by 5pm. A small team then de-rigged LRD ready for the Uffculme Show.
Ainsley also managed to complete most of his cable retrieve training with help from Julian West, rounding off a busy day at the club. – Joel Roulson
