Saturday 3rd May

The expectation of epicness earlier in the week turned into gloom in the south west of England. But it was no surprise that with an optimistic weather forecast, a keen group of members turned up bright and early and the flying list was soon quite long.
Whilst the weather in the morning was not as good as some forecasts,  nevertheless it was flyable so Club gliders were towed up to the northwest corner of the field whilst a number of private owners were seen in and around the Clubhouse discussing whether the brighter weather to the East would make it's way across to the Club and if so how quickly.

X-C optimism dealt an early blow!
As Club flying continued apace during the morning, slowly but surely the skies brightened as did the general demeanour of the private owners and by around lunchtime the sun was shining enough to encourage a number of them to start moving their gliders from the trailer park to the other end of the field.
And a good decision that turned out to be as the flight times got longer and longer with the thermals getting better and better as the afternoon progressed. 
An almost empty launch pointand nice fluffy clouds tell their own story
James (ENW), Pete St (230), JB and Matt (M5) all completed a 100km task (NHL, TIV, CRK, NHL) and JB managed  a good speed of 89kph.
By the end of the day everyone had flown and a total of  57 flights had been completed.  
Best flight on the National ladder today was 812km for the good bit of weather up-country!

During the morning a group of students from Wellington School arrived for the first of a series of Saturday mornings at the Club using their extra-curricular time to find out more about gliding, both actual flying and groundschool operations.
Paul S and Mike S completed an airfield layout, safety awareness and ground handling briefing session following which 3 students had an opportunity to experience their first glider flight whilst the other students were shown various launch point operation tasks. It was much appreciated as to how Club members readily helped with 'explaining, showing and telling' the students about various aspects of Club operations. 
- Mike Sl