The day kicked off with a combined Course and club briefing, where we had some rather interesting chats about weather forecasting with Jill Harmer. There was a bit of a mix of nerves as GCSE results were announced at 08:45. Huge congratulations to everyone who got their grades!
After the briefing, we got the gliders ready and set off for the day’s flying. The morning had some light showers that briefly stopped us from flying, but we were back in the air soon after, with a few pilots enjoying longer flights.
Course instructors Mark, Mike and Steve were helped out by Ashley, Dave, Richard and Arthur.
The course has been a real boon to the members, and we’re especially grateful to Ashley, Dave and Gordon for their winch and launch point training. Richard has been signed off on the winch and is using his new skills to great effect, giving us some fantastic launches. Benjie has been signed off on launch point setup and logging, Arthur Lean has also been training on logging and both have done a fantastic job all day.
We owe a huge thank you to Dave and Ashley for sharing their knowledge and passing it on to the very willing Juniors.
Well done to Course member Harry for landing his first time—what a great achievement! Jack is still working on launch failures and cable breaks, getting ready for solo when he reaches the age requirement. He’s also been practising launch point and logging.
Kai is getting close to solo and is practising launch failures, plus he’s enjoying longer flights.
Adam had a fantastic start to the week when he switched to the Junior category and soon completed several hour-plus flights.
We should give a big thank you to the Juniors, as they showed so many great qualities, like teamwork, decision-making and communication, while also learning lots of new skills. Best of all, they did everything with a smile and had some great banter—hats off to them all, they’re an inspiration!
The day wrapped up with a course photo and then we headed into the clubhouse for Vicky’s superb cooking. Bangers and mash and peas followed by rhubarb crumble were all a real treat! Thank you so much, Vicky! – Julian West
