I knew that at the weekend, I wouldn’t be able to do any solo flying in the Mosquito because the weekend had been advertised as an Open Weekend for anyone who want to have a go at gliding, therefore the Club would require my assistance, especially now that I am the Chief Flying Instructor (CFI) again.
Saturday morning came and it was pouring with rain. The rain eventually slowed and after a briefing in the clubhouse, it was decided to get the gliding kit out, only for it to be rained on…Biggest problem was the wind, with a steady 90 degree Southerly crosswind across the airfield, I had grave concerns about operations with the tug aircraft (Maule M6 235) because it has a 15mph crosswind limit. More and more members of the public were arriving and we were had to ask them to watch videos or try the simulator which we’d set up in the clubhouse whilst we waited for the wind to abate. Steve decided to take the tug up for a circuit to try the conditions without a glider on the back, but was unable to make a safe landing back on the airfield, so elected to land the tug in the farmer’s field alongside. Club members managed to pull it back onto the airfield and we waited for an improvement in the weather… It eventually came; by 14:00 the wind was backing to a more friendly direction, somewhat up the airfield strip.
I took a solo launch in the K13 whilst Steve flew the tug – it was extremely rough indeed with my light weight in the front and the curl-over from the trees. We waited for another 30 minutes more before flying with the first Air Experience person – a friend of mine from work (Jim Gulliver) who had previously gone solo many years before. As the day progressed, the wind backed and became more favourable for us, turning more down the strip.
Sunday 8 May dawned with much better weather – brighter, sunnier, but also much windier! This time at least the wind was predominately down the strip. The concerns for me today as CFI, was the strength of the wind as the forecast was indicating 12kts with gusts to 30kts or more, increasing later in the day. Members of the public started to arrive and we managed to start to fly from 11:00 and in fact, although very breezy, there were also good soaring conditions to 3500 feet.
Today there were another 3 people that I know from work that arrived – James Ratcliffe, Peter Jones and Graham Chadwick, who had brought along his son Sam for a flight as a birthday treat. I flew with all three and in particular, Peter who had just retired the Friday before, had a very good flight indeed with him doing most of the flying as we tracked backwards and forwards along a cloud street to the East of the airfield.
So we completed what was to be a very successful weekend for the club with the added bonus of three new club members who paid up there and then, taking advantage of a very good offer and joined the Club.
So all of this left me with a late night home on Sunday, with very little time left in which to throw some clothes in a bag. Work for me the following day involved me departing Gatwick early on Monday morning for a business trip to Florence for a very important review meeting on the Tuesday followed by further meetings and workouts for the rest of the week. Who says life’s not interesting? It certainly is very interesting and extremely busy for me!
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