Women in Gliding Day at RAF Shawbury Sun 27 Apr 25
It was Ladies Day on Sunday, not at Ascot or Cheltenham but at RAF Shawbury where we were super excited to celebrate national Women in Gliding (WinG) Day…..
……with an ambitious programme that had been well prepared by Laura.
So we were delighted to welcome ten ladies, organised into two groups, morning and afternoon and, with some club members flying in France, given the resources available that was probably the maximum number that we could safely manage. The grass was resonably short and the weather gods were with us with the ground firm and dry……
……and Laura had us all well organised before our visitors arrived!
The morning and afternoon session included ground and safety briefs and also simulator sessions for some before our visitors went flying……
…..but clearly some found this all a bit too exciting!😂
The club had offered two packages consisting of either one TMG flight and one glider flight or alternatively our visitors could opt for two glider flights.
KE was earmarked for TMG flights and those who lived locally set off to try and get a pic of home.
Nikita went off with Colin to see if they could find both her home and school in Wellington.
We launched off r’way 23 into conditions that were booming wiht cloud base risng to around 4,000ft.
We were delighted to welcome Emma from the RAFCF. Emma had taken a TMG trip with Colin in the morning and we placed her in the capable hands of Will in the afternoon, and flying in a suitable marked R22! Many thanks for your support Emma which is much appreciated by our RAF Cosfor and RAF Shawbury MEF gliding bursary students.
Our aim was to get our visitors involved in all aspects of a day on the gliding field and many thanks to them all for talking up the challenge from attaching the cable to running the wing, etc.
Once in the air it was evident that we had some natural aviators amongst the groups
We hope our visitors enjoyed their day and that we may see some of them on he airfield on a future occasion.
With out visitors gone it was time to reflect wiht 30 launches and over 12 hours of flying. Many thanks to all our hard-working instructors and tuggies who, had they not been sustained by excellent cake supplied by Mrs #vulcan bomber, would have run out of puff by the end of a long day, and many thanks too Laura for organising a thoroughly enjoyable day at Shawbury.