Hopes for more good flying were realised on both Monday & Tuesday. Whilst on Monday the tows were rough the rewards made up for those few exciting minutes. By the end of the day there were several Gold and Diamond height claims pending. There were some problems with calibration charts being left at home and dealing with SLMG traces but we hope these will be resolved and succesful claims will result. A trip South was organised to get several Oxygen cylinders re-filled ! On Tuesday the wind moved slightly more to the West producing more wave but with it appearing a little further South. The longer tows slowed things down somewhat but were much smoother than Monday's. The wave also proved rather changeable. Every time you looked around the wave had moved. As a result the flight times and heights were more variable but there were still some great flights. An annual refresher flight taking 2h 45m and reaching 10,400' must be some kind of record !
Some of the visitors' trailers. What's in the box ? |
This week has stood out, apart from the sheer number of visitors, by virtue of the variety of gliders including the very smart HpH Shark and the JS1 Revelation. Several DG 800 SLMGs have demonstrated very impressive take offs and climbs - not at all what most people would think of as a normal motor glider take off but the sheer number of trailers defeats a normal camera lens. The rigging area, above, was full, along with the area behind the hangar and with gliders parked along the boundary to the South of the rigging area.
Wednesday and Thursday have been spolit by high winds and heavy showers but we hope we may get some more flying to end the week.