Another great soaring day at Shawbury, a day that lived up to the forecast. With a number of members flying with the RAFGSA in the French Alps and others away on essential duties there were just enough of us to manage a very busy day.

Highlight of the day was Mickey’s first solo, the last flight of the day in ideal conditions. Many congratulations Mickey and we hope you go an and make the most of your gliding career.

Booming thermals that kicked off at about 11:00 were just in time for our first mini-gliding course at Shawbury. This perfect retirement gift saw David Wallace with instructor Nick Lewington enjoy a trip of 1h 13m in R35 reaching heights of 3,500ft and finishing off with a celebratory Chandelle (a wing over) or two over the airfield.

Our programme to fly 1st Shawbury Air scouts continued. On this occasion we were delighted to welcome Peter and Tyler to the airfield for their flights and know that they thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience.

With cloud base to 5,000 feet and fantastic visibility we enjoyed a great day. The vote for the best trip probably goes to Andy, one of our early solo pilots, who took advantage of the conditions to enjoy his first solo soaring flight of 40mins and reaching heights of 4,500 feet – well done Andy. Others ventured away from the airfield to visit Ellesmere, Ternhill, Telford, The Wrekin and Shrewsbury.