The day started with Mick Hughes and Steve Flowitt-Hill being winch launched in the K21 by Paul Thompson at 5:13am after the early morning rain had passed. This stunning photo that Steve took is now on Weatherjacks site http://s214580749.websitehome.co.uk/soaring/soaring.html.
Other early morning pilots enjoying the rare opportunity of a before 9am launch were Keith Panton, Norman Clowes, Mike Crook, Dave Taylor and Art Kerkhoff flying the K21 together and Nick Owen. Others helping included Grum, Berekely and Jenny, thanks guys a great start to the day.
The day shift lead by Will Day took over at 10am after a prolonged weather break from 7am, with Jonathan Abbas tugging and John R-K, Steve F-H and myself helping out instructing. The weather definitly improved during the day and brought with it many former members for winch flights. Jane Flowitt-Hill was running the sales desk again and we took another 16 trial lessons during the day - many of these during the evening.
The Kirby Kite was out flying again and we had a flying visit from Dave Rusbridge!I flew with Lynda Green and Nigel Hall who were members during the early 1970s and who had not flown for 35 years, and I flew my 1000th launch with former member John Ranson - they all had a great time and they seemed very keen to come back to gliding - we look forward to welcoming them back to the club. We also flew former members J Wilkins, S Wilkins, J Neary, J Cordiner, B Lockwood, Colin Sheild and Graham Parker (the weatherman!).
Andy Vidion took over the late shift at 4pm, and flying continued until the last launch at 9.26pm as Andy and Roy Colman aerotowed to 3700ft to aerobat down, landing at 9:46pm.
I understand Mark Wright is very happy as he had no paperwork to complete for the entire event, so thanks again to everyone who helped out in however small a capacity - we could not have done this without you!
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