Flying Report Sun 22 Oct 23

After the excitement of a week away at Denbigh we gathered for morning briefing with bright skies over Shawbury, but it didn’t stay like that all day.  And once airborne the aftermath of Storm Babet was quite evident.

The first flight got away at 10:15 with John Luke picking up the pace of his BI training, this time under the expert eye of Norm Potts.  John is making good progress and we look forward to seeing another BI before too long.

Meanwhile our newest BI Sophie is getting all the flying that she needs and this time it was with visitor James.  They enjoyed a couple of trips in K21 (R22) and in the process saw the arrival of light rain over the airfield, rain that would eventually bring a close to flying.

Fantastic to see John Francis, a former club member from WGC days.  He flew with Colin who said that it was evident that John had been concentrating on his PPL but that we would soon have him back in shape!🤣🤣

Despite our MEF student cohort being away on break, nevertheless we welcomed a number of visitors, both flying and non-flying.  It was especially nice to welcome two German service personnel on exchange training at Shawbury.  They are not permitted to fly gliders whilst on their course but it was nice to see their interest in what we were doing.

Although nowhere near as bad as other parts of the UK, once airborne it was patently evident that Storm Babet had left its mark on the countryside, .  Most A-roads were clear but fields and low lying areas were clearly flooded, especially along the flood plain of the River Severn which had burst its banks.

River Severn flood plain West of Shrewsbury.

River Severn has overflowed its banks in Shrewsbury

Flooded fields near Shawbury

With rain over the far end of the airfield Richard returned with some haste from his launch and flying ceased at 16:00 as the next belt of torrential rain arrived.  Nevertheless we did achieve 24 launches and over 6:30 hrs flying time during the day.