A cracking start to the day, well sort of, there was a loud crack when one nameless club members drove over a drip tray!

Much to our surprise it was thermic around mid-day, but it was just as the X-Section had suggested. The highlight of the day was another appearance of the DG400 on the launch point which, the pilot having finally worked out the correct flap settings, then departed for a 2hr 40min flight. At some point Alan, on this his 55th Birthday, then shared a thermal with hog of the day John Luke in the K18 who enjoyed a trip of 1h 4 mins, reaching heights of 3,000 ft.

With the X-Section giving early warning of high winds in the late afternoon courtesy of Storm Corrie, it was a busy day as we squeezed all our pre-solo pilots into a shortened flying window, and with a number to fly we were grateful for the assistance of instructor Nigel Lassiter from the Midland Gliding Club. All our young pilots completed 2-3 flights each and it is very gratifying to see their tangible progress. Overheard during a debrief:

“Now your left turns I like a lot, in fact they are probably the best left turns that I’ve experienced in a while. However, your right turns would normally require the use of the right, rather than the left rudder pedal!”

Darcey G continued her training toward achieving solo on her 14th birthday this coming October. And when she wasn’t flying she was tutoring some of our new members on the eccentricities of the Glidex flight logging system. Many thanks Darcey for your help today and we can only apologise that your Dad ate your lunch that had been so carefully prepared for you by your Mum..