Sunday 16th December 2012

Today we managed to fly 33 more launches than on Saturday!

The field was very wet with little if any drying overnight so we had to go out and actively hunt the solid bits. The winch was set up on the southwest stub and we put the launchpoint in front of the main hangar.

The tow-out took the new ‘Z’ route along the cross runway and hugged the field edge back to the launchpoint.

The aircraft canopies took a fair while to stop misting (on the outside) which gave us plenty of time to get K8 G-CJHK and K8 former JXS ready to go on trailers to their new home at East Sussex Gliding Club.

Launch heights were good, 1,600ft was common and the cloud-base behaved for us.

Flight times were generally short but good training was done. Adrian F managed to squeak out 15 minutes and a 300ft climb on a street which was gone almost as soon as it appeared.

With careful planning, retrieves caused no problems and the field condition was not worsened.

Spot landings within a tracks width of the perimeter track on 190′ were order of the day and everybody achieved this admirably except for our Scottish visitor who had to show off his parallel parking technique. We duly kicked in his minor rut.

Ultimately, we kept flying until the canopies again began misting and the Sun escaped over the horizon.

Washing aircraft and vehicles down at the end of a good day!

Washing aircraft and vehicles down at the end of a good day!

Saturday 10th November 2012

Today started with a rather wet field and a very low cloud base. The wind which was predicted to be a strong South-Westerly, gave us an easier time than expected and we were able to operate on the less damp areas of the field. The cloud base lifted slowly but broke up to enable launching before midday.

Thermal soaring proved not to be possible in general despite significant vertical cloud formations. Some pilots enjoyed themselves flying around the lower clouds; it gives a real sense of speed!

Warwick University Gliding Club sent a contingent of students along and they all enjoyed their flights. 32 launches took place in all; flying was finally stopped when canopies began misting due to the atmospheric conditions.

The club K8 was derigged and stored in the hangar. It will not be flown again as a club aircraft and is now looking for a new home. The new Ka6 was rigged and test positioned in the hangar. It fits nicely!

In this video, Andy shows Mark from UWGC a couple of aerobatic figures in our K21.