Summer 2008

Looking at the stats from the UK met office, it can be seen that East Anglia had the highest actual and highest mean temps this summer. It also had the second highest amount of sunshine and the lowest rainfall. So despite the poor weather, it seems we probably did have the best of the summer soaring season here in the East.

Just think what we can achieve when we get some good weather next year!

www.metoffice.gov.uk/climate/uk/2008/summer/averages1.html

Sunday 19th October

Will Day was duty dog. It was definitely starting to feel autumnal with a moderate SSW wind which allowed us to achieve winch launches to over 2000ft. Some A/Ts also took place to take advantage of the reduced prices for Annual Refresher Training for stalling & spinning. A reporter from 'The Mercury' (local paper) came for a trial lesson and tried both winch and A/T. Ben volunteered to fly her and Sharon seem to enjoy the experience very much. We may have even got ourselves a new member! We look forward to reading the report. I also did some instructing, to help make best use of the 2-seaters and get everyone flown. A good day was had by all. Photo: Ben & reporter Sharon waiting to launch.

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Saturday 18th Oct

Another lovely sunny day, with both winch and aerotow launches available. Paul Wilkinson, Des O'Brien and Berkeley Pittaway took the opportunity to use reduced rate AFR aerotows to complete their annual checks - spinning was had by all!!!

Chris Lawrence and Dave Munro flew thier own gliders and we had Ben Kirk and Rebecca Woodcock under training. Others out today included Geoff Tilly, Art Kerkhoff, Jenny Novak, Gary Marshall and Nick Owen (flying his Falke). Several power pilots also came out to play including the yellow Tiger Moth.

Thursday 16th October

Brisk winds but good flying. We operated off 'The Church Run' with both winch and aero-tow. Mick ran a day course and I was able to get to the airfield this afternoon to help with the club instructing. Jim Lawn completed his AFR - the second pilot to do so this year! Geoff T. and George B'ski both had soaring flights. Others out today included Paul Thompson, Paul Woodcock, Mike Tate, Berkeley Pittaway and Phil Morgan (driving the winch).

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Saturday 11th October

Fine weather and beautiful blue skies all day provided the opportunity for pilots to start work on their Annual Flight Reviews (AFR). The K13 was re-weighed this morning by Stu Hoy and has been re-placarded lowering the minimum solo weight significantly.

The whole fleet came out and we flew both aerotow and winch - successfully using lights as the primary signal method for the winch. In addition to 5 air experience flights, we welcomed some new members; Miles Harrison (formally Cambridge GC) and Jay Craddock, 14, who is a friend of Art's son who also flew today. Paul Woodcock flew with Mark Wright and completed his passenger carrying endorsment. Jenny Novak and Paul Wilkinson did AFR flights with Paul starting his back seat training for BI.

Photo: Jan, Miles & Ben putting the K.13 to bed at sunset.

Thanks to all that helped out to make it an enjoyable day.

Ian.

Midweek Report

Following the rain on Tuesday, the weather improved for the rest of the week with club members turning out and enjoying some good flying. Wednesday was particularly good with quite a lot of soaring, longest flights were over 1hr 30mins.

Weekly flying.

Hi Guys,

A glorious Monday morning with no one here to fly but we're planning to fly the rest of the week. The tugs back online so why not come along.