A report by Keith Clemo - Four members plus friends and family attended this event making a total of 9 in all, of whom 6 chose to fly. The Gliding Centre made us very welcome, with 2 K21 trainers on hand, and a Chipmunk aircraft doing the aerotows. Gliding got underway about 5:30. Despite cool and windy conditions, the first ones to fly found a little bit of lift amongst the patches of evening sunshine. After aerotowing up to 2000 feet, my instructor, Stafford, was very good at explaining how to find lift and circle round to get the best from it. For my part, even though I rarely got the variometer to indicate any actual upward movement, we still managed to reduce the sink rate and prolong the flight to about 20 minutes, although it seemed much longer.
As the evening wore on, the lift dissipated but everyone enjoyed their flights, with clear visibility giving superb views of the local area. Meanwhile, those of us on the ground were treated by the arrival of ‘RK with Bob Bowles and Tony Williams on board. Not an impromptu arrival for the gliding event but just “dropping in” for Tony's check ride in 'RK.
One of the nicest things about the Gliding Centre is their superb restaurant/bar which is where we all retired as it grew too dark to fly. As we paid for our flights, the club explained that our temporary membership entitles us to come and fly again during the next 3 months and I think there are some who might take them up on that. Thanks to the Gliding Centre for laying on a superb event, and especially to instructors Stafford and Sid for showing us PPL’s that the rudder pedals are not just a comfy place to rest your feet. Gliding Poster.
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