Flying Report 5 Nov 23

No fireworks on the airfield rather, the weather was kind to us and allowed for a full day’s flying.  Viz was great and we could even see the moon, an average distance of 384 400 km (238 855 miles) or 1.3 light-seconds away from the Earth.  Howevs, nearer to home we could also see the Jodrell Bank radio telescope glinting in the sun some 55 kms away.  Oh, and new members and progress with instructor training all added to a most satisfying day!

It is great to see our younger members making progress.  Alan and The Vicar took the first launch of the day with The Vicar making great strides towards his Ass Cat Instructor qualification. 

Meanwhile Alan Jolly teamed up with John Luke to check progress on his BI training.  In the image below they’re having a discussion around what purpose might the thingy with the green knob on top serve.

Friends of family are always welcome and this week Will took his Naval Reservist friend on a 4,000ft aerobatics trip – not the usual place to find a member of the senior service who probs felt a bit like a fish out of water🤣🤣.

We were delighted to see new members Ffion, Ben and Charlie join us on the airfield and all managed to get a number of trips during the day.  Junior member Ffion took her first flight with Sophie and followed up later with a trip with Alan. We then paired Ben up with Colin on the basis that two cadets are always better then one.

As the day progressed the cloud built up.  Rain was always threatening but thankfully passed by.

For the final flights of the day we lined up a succession of single seat jockeys for some aero-tow training for John Luke under the watchful eye of Ian G. John’s training is going really well and we look forward to seeing another tuggy on the books.

Launching and landing uphill on r’way 23 in the winter months into a low sun on the horizon is always challenging and brought an end to launching at 15:30.

The final acts of the day were to derig R22 for its annual and to ensure that H4 was rearranged for Remembrance Day rehearsals.  Many thanks to those who helped push and shove around the vast hangar.

A cracking day out.  Not a hint of lift and buckets of sink but we achieved 28 launches and over 8 hours flying time.