Sunday 14 May 2023

There was a good turnout today for the 09:30 hangar briefing and we had the kit ready on Runway 20 by 10:00.

Unfortunately, low cloud then delayed us, but it cleared by late morning as forecast and Dan Kearney led the scramble in the ASK 18 (R48) at 11:16 and seemed to remain glued in it until he achieved his first one hour duration flight for his Bronze badge in challenging thermal conditions.

We were surprisingly busy with lots of under training pilots and had just enough instructors to keep the two-seaters occupied throughout the day.

The Discus 2cT (R6) and the Duo Discus (26) arrived back from the RAFGSA expedition to Sisteron and were quickly rigged whilst we were largely beating around the circuit.

We were joined by the UCL students, some of whom came by taxi to get around the rail strike!

Despite aspirations to complete their five hour silver duration flights, Ben King and Ethan Low were unable to find the forecast conditions, but Ben was hog of the day with a flight of 2 hours 32 minutes.

I am pleased to advise the comms worked well with the benefit of a new base station antenna and replacement airfield mobile telephone.

It was a long day with last landing at nearly 20:00. Thanks to Greg Weeks' superb management, together with the support of our hard working members, we cracked 53 launches and a total of 10 hours 55 minutes.

Selflessly supported by instructors Adrian Lake, Paul Field and Josh Rees, everyone flew and, I hope, had an enjoyable day.

My only regrets are that we left the bus in a bit of an untidy state and had to tow one of the buggies back to the hangar having thrown a drive belt. My apologies to Graham Quinn and to the oncoming Monday Aim Higher Team.

Other than that, a great day and thank you for all your efforts.