Thursday 20th July

 

Moving midweek flying from Wednesday is always a bit of a lottery.  Turnout on any other day can be a bit limited.  This week was no different but it was clear we would not have flown on Wednesday (cloud base reported as 100′ to 200′).  Thursday started not in the least bit promising but Bob B insisted that cloudbase would be 5,000′ in the afternoon.  With relatively few folks who busied themselves on jobs around the place we didn’t get flying until about 13:30.  Although the sky was looking promising by that time it came with a rather lively 90 degree crosswind (westerly).  With only one person on the instruction list (and he was at the other end of the airfield) I took the Puchacz to move it out of the way.  Having confirmed cloudbase was indeed 5,000′ I drifted back to earth, pausing only to mark a thermal for the recently launched K13 (my efforts were ignored but it resulted in me gaining a thousand feet in the 3 or 4 circles I completed).

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Look carefully and you will see the cable parachute and Paul B

It was a day for nabbing a thermal quickly after launch and making sure that climb rate exceeded drift rate.  Only 13 launches but 5 of those were of a decent length.  Turns out all of those were flown by instructors (Bob B, Colin B Ken R and yours truly).  Ken R impressively beat his way into wind and got to Marlborough.  Easy in a Duo Discus do I hear you say?  Ah, but he was flying the slightly less performant K8.  Paul B and Martin S got to inspect the crops when the cable broke on one launch and drifted into the adjacent field.

With Tony P away recovering from his hip operation (best wishes for a speedy recovery from all of us) no home baking on offer but there were sausage rolls from Waitrose.

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PS the hangar floor looks magnificent although there are now foot prints spoiling the shinny black surface

 

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