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A fly-able weekend at last!

It has been a slightly frustrating January for the club’s weekend warriors, with cracking wave days during the week giving way to grey skies and low cloud at the weekends that have mostly prevented flying from taking place.  So there was a good turnout on Sunday 30th January when a narrow gap between storms Malik and Corrie saw mostly blue-ish skies and a light, if strengthening, sou’westerly forecast.

Weak thermals started kicking-off from around 11AM and enabled Martin Willcox and CFI John McKenzie to post short soaring flights, with Brian Allen, John Illidge, John Beksa and Andew Hawton subsequently able to use the thermals to jump to the wave.  Brian flew for nearly 2 hours and John Illidge for just under an hour; not bad for January!  The wave later became capricious – and with the wind south-of-west the ridge was working, but only just.  Ace hill-soarer Pete Grey was nevertheless able to hang on for over an hour in a club ASK 18 – and Emily Lockwood was re-united with K 8 Charlie-Foxtrot-Foxtrot and had a great soaring flight.  We were particularly pleased that so many of the club’s newer members were able to join us, with four ab initios getting good air-time; thank you to our instructors Richard Dance, Alex Oldham, Warwick Horne and Pete Grey for getting everyone flown.

A cracking day in the air and on the airfield finished with tales of aviation derring-do in the bar – and with Pete Grey proving that you really can teach an old dog new tricks by getting signed-off on the new computerised till!

 

 

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