LAA Fly-In

Matt Cooke was around the club about to test fly his newly assembled Tipsy Nipper and agreed to authorise flying to start the days operations. The usual suspects were around and organised launching at a respectable 10am start. I turned up around 11am to take over as duty to an airfield begining to fill up with light aircraft. John Cooke had organised an LAA fly-in and by lunch time its was in full swing.

We were operating on 26 and were able to winch up to around 12pm when the big rush started. It ran very well and the power visitors were fitted in very happily with the gliding operations. Between 12-3pm we went to aerotow only as aircraft were landing at a rate of 1 every 3 minutes. Tibenham International Airport was definitly open for business!! In total we had around 40 visiting aircraft and some had flown from as far away as Sleap, Enstone, Tatenhill, Rochester, Stapleford, Elstree and North Weald.

It was soarable - with Geoff Tilley and Josie Briggs both getting soaring flights over 20mins from the winch. Gary Marshall rigged and flew his newly polished B12 on aerotow, Oliver Bloomfield had an exciting flight doing spin training with Matt Cooke, John Roche-Kelly flew a visitor on a trial lesson, Dave Taylor helped out by operating the winch for a few hours in the morning, others out were Tim Highton, Steve Flewitt-Hill, Nick Owen, Jenny Novak, Dave Allen and Jim Carter. Mike Tate and Josie Briggs helped man the radio. Steve Catermole and Steve Banyard were tuggies.

Thanks to all club members who pitched in and made this a very enjoyable day for gliding members and visiting pilots.

That was the trial run, roll on 20th June!!!