Listening to the forecast, those who turned up today probably enjoyed the best conditions of the Bank Holiday weekend although with our MEF students away for the break we were light in number.

Thanks to those who gave up their time midweek to work on WG.  Just compression test to do and that’s the annual complete.

Blue skies and by mid-morning thermals were beginning to pop…..

…..and it was clear that Will, on parental leave at home, had been watching and had decided to sneak out from nappy duties for a quick trip.  Great escape and nice one Will!

First away was Connor for a quick check flight with Geoff M in R35 before jumping into R66 ; thought he’d pulled a fast one by getting away early in R66 but failed to notice that none of the other single seat jockeys were rushing to launch.  15 mins later Connor was back on the ground.  However, later in the day, and after a few handy tips from all and sundry, Connor tried again in the “concrete swan” and completed a flight of 42 mins. 

Although our Scottish Sisteron hero had learnt to soar the concrete swan, it was evident that he couldn’t master one of the club’s valuable launch point armchairs – out of limits! Donk of the day goes to Connor!

We always enjoy looking after our visitors and we had a number today.  Geoff M had brought two friends along for a trip, Martin and Sharon.  Martin is an ex-Vulcan pilot whilst friend Sharon lives just up the road and it was Sharon who was up for a flight with Geoff M.  Martin had been hoping to meet up again with #vulcanbomber and share stories that we love so much about dropping iron bombs in Scottish lochs but sadly #vulcanbomber couldn’t make it today.

Next, we welcomed Jim Washington.  Jim flew solo at Ternhill in 1966/1967 as an Air Cadet in 235 Squadron ATC based at Cobridge in Stoke-on-Trent and he then went on to join the RAF in 1969.  To relive past times we placed Jim in the capable hands of Amelia, and they enjoyed a great trip.

Conditions were gradually improving and first to take advantage was Oliver flying in R35 with Nick.  Oliver has progressed from the MEF gliding scholarship scheme and now has RAFGSA Go Solo funding to take him to the next stage.  Nick and Oliver enjoyed some great training on a flight of just under an hour and all because the CFI had run the wing for the perfect launch!

A big well done to Laura on completing her first BI trip for which she’d brought a friend Lauren.  They took a 3,000ft launch so that Lauren could enjoy a couple of loops on the way down.  Top job Laura.

As the day wore on, conditions continued to improve with some booming thermals to enjoy and cloud base in excess of 4,000ft. 

The last two flights of the day went to Amelia and Laura who both took launches to 5,000ft.  Amelia put in some aerobatics practice whilst Laura continued her aerobatics coaching with Ian, working toward her next aerobatics badge.  Always a great watch from the ground.

A great day out, 20 launches and over 12 hours of flying time.