Our first flying day of the New Year was very well attended, and the weather turned up as well.  It was just the day to dust off the cobwebs of Sophie’s excellently organised club Xmas supper, the excesses of turkey and plum duff on Christmas Day and, for some, too much of everything on NY’s Eve.

A slightly cloudy and showery start soon made way for clear skies and sunshine, and with great viz it was easy to pick out the radio telescope at Jodrell Bank on the horizon.

With a large flying list to get through first away were Jack and Harry.  Jack took a check ride before a couple of solo trips and is getting near to conversion to a single seater.  Meanwhile, Harry continues his progress on the MEF scholarship programme and is very near to going solo – good progress Harry.

It was also the day when conditions beckoned the single seaters out on to the launch point indeed 243, with its iron thermal strapped on its back, hadn’t sniffed the air since October.

Will Dean had been continuing with his progress toward his ½ Cat qualification by sitting his Bronze exam back in H4.  Following on from Will’s efforts on his Silver X-Country where we reckon he must have been using Google Maps, we were all amazed that he completed the Navigation part of the exam!  It’s now just a matter of getting the paperwork approved by the BGA and we hope to soon see Will’s name on the instructors list.

Geoff M brought along a friend to fly, so good to meet Martin Pitt.  Martin is a very experienced pilot having served in the RAF as, amongst other things, a Vulcanised Bomber pilot.  As we already have another Bomber laddie on the books, Richard Head, it didn’t take long for one wag to suggest that if we crewed them up in the K13 they would be Pitt+Head=Disaster (geddit!😂😂).

Fantastic to see the youngsters coming through the system.  Darcy continues with her training and can’t be far from going solo.

Amelia had arranged some aerobatics tuition with Ian G.  So following some ground school it was off for a couple of trips to 4,000ft, descending through a whole series of stall turns and other stomach churning stuff to return to the launch point.

Sunset brought an end to a cracking first flying day in 2023 and may there be many more.