Flying Report Sat 24 Aug 24
A day of two halves that started with rain and a line of showers, the tail end of a large weather system, and ended with high winds out of limits for the tug. In between some fantastic conditions with booming thermals
Following the station Families Day it was welcome back to an empty and spotless Hangar 4 so whilst the rain fell we took advantage of the conditions to move everything back from Hangar 1. .
Welcome to Shawbury based Laim for his first flights on the MEF Gliding Bursary scheme. While we were moving stuff from Hangar 1 to 4, we sent Liam for an hour’s trip dodging the showers in the TMG with Colin. Amazing how much of the early training syllabus you can cover in an hour in the tug.
With the weather improving the first launch was at 11:40. Liam continued his flying in R22 with Nick and Richard went off with Norm in R35 for annual checks. There then followed another break for rain – it was that sort of morning. But once the front had cleared to leave behind an unstable air mass, the thermals were popping.
Laura took R22 for aerobatics. Our amazing Saltby BAeA Club Class winner is now in practice for her next comp, the Dan Smith Memorial Trophy in September.
Looked great from where we were Laura.😎
Liam continued his training with Nick making the most of the conditions to take a trip of 1hr 15 mins, at one stage meeting up with Astir EEO. Good work Liam
Jack continued his Bronze training with Norm in R35 and they too took the opportunity to join EEO, at one stage the tug and R35 in the same thermal and going up at 8 knts…..
……and ending with some upset recovery training – not the best thing after a goodnight out on the Bongo’s Bingo club (2 Skinner Street, WV1 4LD, BTW) in Wolves, Jack 🤣🤣
Meanwhile the single seat jockeys were also enjoying the conditions in R66.
With winds rising it was only a matter of time before it was out of limits for the tug and we called a halt at 15:30. A cracking start to the Bank Holiday with nearly 7 hours of flying. Roll on Monday
Thanks to everyone for pitching in to restore all aircraft and equipment to Hangar 4.