Fun day at the airfield on Saturday.
We would like to thank Darren Alcoe and Leigh Stokes for doing (I believe) ALL the winch driving between the two of them. Thanks also to Peter Cassidy for helping with the instructing as Derek Spencer was (and still is) too heavy to fly with some of the people up on Saturday.
We had two AEFs and a new Trainee (Thomas) as well as Leigh, Darren, Peter and myself to fly. After some check flights, we got stuck into flying the AEFs and Thomas. Peter successfully got one of the AEFs and Thomas feeling sick but fortunately neither of them actually threw up. Thomas was a very definite shade of white with a hint of green when he landed. Peter then had just under an hour flight with Leigh. There were reports of numerous thermals in the 8 to 10 knot range.
After all that was done, Darren and Derek Spencer went for a flight. It was 4:00pm when they launched but the thermals were still going strong and conditions were good. So, what do you do when the thermals are strong and the conditions are still good? You go cross-country of course!
So, Darren and Derek went to Robertstown and back in the K13. When they turned at Robertstown, they calculated that they needed to be at least at 7000’ for final glide back to Stonefield. They took the thermal to 8500’ so they could come back a little bit quicker than best L/D speed for the K13. Turns out, leaving Robertstown at 8500’ is JUST enough height to get back to Stonefield when flying at 55 – 60 kts and dolphin soaring as much as possible. Needless to say, it was a very interesting final glide!