Monday 11th May - Course Week

Day 1 of the May course began with everyone turning up as planned and on time so that was a good start to the week.

However the weather forecast suggested a delay to the flying for the day and that is how it turned out - with the Course Welcome completed and after much gazing out of the Clubhouse window it was clear that all the wishing in the world was not going to change the fact that it was unflyable for the moment. So it was straight into the briefing room for a lecture from Pete Sm on winch launches and eventualities.

By mid-morning, there was enough brightness in the sky to suggest that it would be flyable before lunch and the optimism provided to be well founded - both K21s were soon out of the hanger and inspected whilst the launch point was set up in the North East corner of the field. 
Getting set up to start as the cloud began to lift (Mike Sl)

With a number of flights before lunch successful in finding lift, it was almost a shame to be stopping for lunch but after food and drink had been consumed, it was back into the skies which had increasing  evidence of thermals 'here and there'.
Promising looking clouds (Mike Sl)
 When the lift was found it was plentiful, but no surprise that in-between the "sink rate" was high. Towards the end of the day the best thermals  appeared with a climb to 3400' achieved by Pete Sm and John A in a K21.
Still a few clouds left at the end of flying (Mike Sl)

With a slow start to the day's flying the course members and ground helpers continued on into the early evening to make the most of the conditions

By the time the hangar doors had shut at around 6:30pm all of the course members had had a good start to the week both in terms of flights and soaring. - Mike Sl