Flying Report Sun 4 May 25
With most of our MEF students away on break and other club members either flying in France or on holiday it was a low turnout on Sunday. A light rain shower on the drive in to Shawbury and heavy overcast skies as we set up on the airfield gave no hint of the day ahead.
We were delighted to welcome visitor Alisdair who joined us for the day on the BGA “Go for Gliding” mini course which is a great way to get into flying gliders. He was immersed in the day during the course of which Alisdair took his 3 flights in the capable hands of Colin
“Go and see if it’s thermic Jack!” So, Jack took the bait and we lined up the Concrete Swan (R66) which, incidentally, looked quite at home amongst all the concrete stripping plant on the airfield. The single seat jockeys reckoned he would be back in 20 minutes – Jack was back in 17!😂
It didn’t take long for conditions to improve and all soon enjoyed booming conditions with cloud base eventually topping out at nearly 5,500ft.
Laura departed in KE with Geoff M to complete her field landing checks and Danny, our only MEF gliding bursary student on the airfield, took the first of four trips with Will.
Elsewhere, after a long absence the Vicar returned from hotter climes and completed the three solo trips that he needed to maintain his instructor rating, Andy took a check flight with Geoff M and Rob completed a 50 min solo trip in R66 – top job Rob.
Whilst some stayed close to the airfield, other strayed further afield to visit, amongst other places Wem, the home of Skylaunch Winches, Ternhill, where there is still no cadet flying and Market Drayton.
John Luke, having tugged all morning took his first trip in EEO and declared it a delight to fly.
Finally, it was great to see Sophie back to flying and she enjoyed a trip of over an hour together with Colin who provided ample ballast in the back seat!🤣
Thanks to the tuggies, everyone got away for a decent trip and we even got dropped off in lift – well you couldn’t miss! We enjoyed a cracking day’s flying at Shawbury with almost 13 hours of flying time.
Club News.
Due to AOS works on the airfield over the weekend flying on Sun 11 May is cancelled.