Flying Report Sat 27 Apr 24
The forecast was not great but despite no lift and interruptions for passing showers we enjoyed a productive day. With our MEF students back from RIAT it was super to see some join us for the day as again we gathered at Hangar 1, out temp home. The only problem was the interruption of the morning brief by shooting on the adjacent range – couldn’t quite work out from where the range staff had hijacked the range flag.
From the launch point it was clear that rain was likely to interrupt the flying programme but once airborne it appeared that the line of showers were just brushing the airfield.
Congratulations to Paul Sutton on being sent solo today by instructor Matthew Cooke. Paul had some previous powered flying and so we had successfully introduced him to a thing called the “rudder”. In his day job Paul is an NHS “cutter” from somewhere North of the Cheshire Gap and travels that far to join us on flying days. He is an ex-OC of 284 (Cheadle and Gatley) Squadron of the RAF Air Cadets and was keen to do some proper gliding. Top job Paul and well done.
Welcome to new member Emma. Shawbury based Emma joins us on the MEF Gliding scholarship programme and this was her first experience of gliding. Emma took her first flight with Laura and then we placed her in the safe hands of Will who had successfully done another “Chicken Run” from nappy changing duties at home – wizard wheeze Will! Glad you enjoyed the day Emma and see you next time.
The breaks for showers were frustrating but provided good wing wiping practice for our students.
The single seat jockeys made good use of the club Astir R66 but with no lift, the average flight time today was only 16 minutes. Nevertheless, everyone got a trip including Charlie on our MEF programme and it would be nice to think that we can get him converted to the Astir before he departs on posting.
A familiar face from the past joined us on the airfield today as we welcomed Dennis Maddocks. He had bought Grandson Elliott a birthday trip in a glider and it was great that there were a number of old hands on the airfield who flew with Dennis – you must pop along more often. Delighted to see that Elliott enjoyed his flight with Geoff M.
Two of our MEF Gliding scholarship programme students, Jake and Harry, are making super progress with their flying and both have now applied for RAFGSA Go-Solo funding to take them on to solo. Well done on your progress and many thanks for all your hard work pushing and pulling on the airfield today.
The last flight of the day went to a Duo Myndie, That’s not like a Duo Discus rather, it’s a K21 with two Myndies in it! Many thanks to Matthew (don’t mention the rather shapely leg) and to Laura for running the airfield today
Well done to our tuggie John Pickard who took the lion’s share of the work today and making sure that on r’way 23 he turned to starboard on departure in accordance with local noise abatement procedures.
Finally, thanks to all for making the move back to out normal home in Hangar 4. Mike O had broken the back of the task whilst we had been flying and we just need to fine tune the layout next weekend.
