We were all geared up to support Will Dean who was to have a flight with BGA Regional Examiner Steve Male at the culmination of his ½ Cat training.  Sadly, the weather intervened with black ice on paved surfaces, low ground mist, no wind and a hint of snow in the air – precisely as forecast.

So the day was scrubbed early on, a great shame given the impressive student(1)/ instructor(9) ratio.  Amongst the notable names on the instructor list it was super to see our good friend Nigel Lassiter, he of “Land-out” fame (or infamy!).

With no flying, there was plenty of admin stuff to keep us occupied.  So whilst some waffled on…….

……a number of the grafters got to grips with R35 which required rigging following its return by Norm Potts from a JSAT course at Systeron,

The most interesting learning aspect of the day was the rig and 10 year checks for R66.  This involved weighing the aircraft, a most involved process using some sophisticated bathroom scales….

….and then measuring the aircraft, both processes designed to establish whether there had been any changes over the past 10 years, although quite how an aircraft would get shorter without being noticed defied explanation!.

As the snow began to fall we called it a day at around lunchtime but many thanks to the Model Aero-Club who held their AGM in our H4 club room and kindly left some home-made cakes behind – much appreciated.