We had a great day yesterday with pretty well wall to wall sunshine. It was cold first thing but was not too bad later on. We had a blue sky all day with just some high cloud later on in the afternoon. It was thermic during the afternoon with some long flights for the time of year. We managed a two cable tow out all day on the north side of the field with no problems but on the south side there were a few soft patches but they were not a problem.

Statistics are as follows,

Total Launches……………………28

Longest Flight…………………….54 mins. Well done to Dave J. who took a day off work, well worth it.

Second and third longest……..24 mins and 23 mins. Well done to John H. and Phillip C. with 24 and to Barry M. with 23. The 3 longest were all done in the Junior.

Total Flight Time………………….4 hrs. 50 min.

Average Flight Time…………….10 mins. First time in double figures this year.

Steve P.

We had a great day today and the weather was very kind to us. The wind was just as expected with a gentle WNW. first thing and then slowly veering to the North West during the day. It did increase to around 15kts but was never a problem so we were able to operate from outside the clubhouse all day.

Early on there was some cloud about and we could see showers out to the West and to the North but it soon cleared to a beautiful blue sky autumn day. We stopped for lunch as Charlie unexpectedly brought one of his delicious curries, it was as always “Delicious” thanks Charlie.

There were plenty of members there and we were kept busy all day, we stayed dry all day and although it did cloud over a little around lunch time by the time we had finished lunch it was a blue sky again and so it stayed for the rest of the day. We had no problems with the canopies misting and as we were landing on 33 even the low sun was not a problem, so we flew until the sun went down. Great day and well worth the effort.

Statistics……………

Total Launches……………….23.
Total Flight Time………………3 hrs. 6 mins.
Average Flight Time…………8 mins.
Longest Flight…………………18 min. Very well done to John H. in the Junior, an exceptional flight in very light conditions. Well ahead of everyone else.

Steve P.

Saturday’s forecast suggested it would be flyable after the clearance of a second front heading south. However, we were initially greeted by rain and low-cloud followed by low cloud that reported higher at met stations north of us and then, frustratingly lower.

We decided to hang on until after 1200 when the first front went by and somebody caught sight of just a bit of blue sky. The remaining band of willing pilots readied and launched the two-seaters just as the second front was passing. The second front was tame with a high-enough cloudbase and it couldn’t stop us as we provided training flights for our ab-initios and early solo students. Due to a short-ish flying list by the time we started, we were able to go round the list twice for instructional flying.

Sunday looked rather better forecast wise from the get-go although the wind promised a cross-field stiff blow. We set up on the south stub as early as we could and got to flying after our CFI Steve gave us a demo of parachute operation (using an expired chute) in the morning briefing.

It was really a bit parky and it paid to wrap up warm (or bag the job of driving the cable retrieve which has a good heater!) Some of our members appeared to go into their winter hibernation states at the launchpoint but we had enough heroes to keep the operation going. We made good enough progress that we were able to offer the student pilots extra flying towards the end of the day and the instructors put solid effort into making sure everyone was satisfied!

39 launches in all for Sunday.

Yesterday was just as predicted with wall to wall sunshine, it was a little cold first thing but soon warmed up to a reasonable temperature. The cloud did increase around lunch time but quickly dispersed to give us a clear afternoon. We had a busy day with all 3 two seaters working for most of the time. A special thanks to Allan W. who stepped in at short notice to help out with instructing as we were down to one instructor before Allan agreed to help out. We certainly made good use of him!

Well done to Derek H. who was cleared to fly the K21 solo and then proceeded to have the longest flight of the day in it. No mean feat in very light conditions. It stayed dry all day but we finally had to stop flying when the canopies started to mist up.

A really good turnout meant all the Mince Pies (sorry but Tesco and Sainsbury’s had sold out of Doughnuts) went early on and every one who wanted too flew. And finally many thanks to Charlie who brought down one of his excellent curries. He has promised to bring down a vegetable one next time, this will be great as some of our members are vegetarian so cannot enjoy the usual ones.

Statistics are……….

Total Launches……………………….32
Total Flight Time………………………4 hrs. 02mins.
Longest Flight…………………………17mins. Well done to Derek in the K21, he was closely followed by David S in the Junior and Nigel M. in C.B.W. well done to them all.
Average Flight Time………………….7 mins. This included several S.C.B.s.

Steve P.

We had a great day Tuesday with an excellent turnout. The weather was kind to us with a good south westerly breeze which gave us some good launches to 1600ft. The sun shone for most of the day but we did have quite a lot of cloud from time to time but it did not stop us flying. It also stayed dry all day but by the middle of the afternoon it did get a bit misty which meant an early end to a successful day. There were 19 on the flying list by time we had the briefing and several more came after that so all the Doughnuts went very quickly,

Many thanks to both Jeff G. and Geof G. who both arrived early to mend the puncture on CBW.. This meant we had all 3 x 2 seaters for most of the day and we made very good use of them.

Statistics below,

Total Launches……………….35.

Longest Flight…………………11 mins, Excluding the Falke times.

Total Flight Time……………….4hrs. 22mins. Excluding the Falke times. The Falke flew twice.

Average Flight Time…………..7mins.

Steve P.