Junior Nationals

The Booker cadets are flying the trusty Duo, 315, Hors Concours in the Junior Nationals this week. The club threw it's weight into the preparation with Dave Byass and Mike Sinclair repairing logger cables, Mike and Will spent 4 hours in the hot sun polishing wings and with the CFI and Chairman washing the trailer what more can be asked for?






We trailered to Dunstable Saturday morning where Mike and Will helped rig, grid and fettle before briefing. In addition to the Booker Cadets, Lasham, Dunstable and the BGA all have two seaters flying cadets to give a first taste of cross country competition.

Day one task was 264kms: up to Northampton, out to Bury St Edmunds and back via Grafham Water. Mike Gatfield flew today and had good conditions with a cloudbase of 4500 amsl and 4-5 knot thermals in places. The start gaggle held around fifteen gliders at one point and was a bit of an eye opener (I'm not sure we blinked for five minutes or so) but everyone was well behaved and we made a start, decided we didn't have a good run out so ran back and restarted around 1.15. There was a lovely street running from the first to second turn and, with a bit of talking to Cambridge air traffic at one point, we had a reasonable run.

Coming back west we passed Starship Campbell heading East and had a good time running alongside the juniors. Getting onto final glide was easy and we crossed the line with plenty of energy for a nice finish. A great first day for the comp, for the cadets and for Booker pilots Will Ellis who finished second and Mike Collett who finished fourth in the main comp.

Hope fully we'll get a day Sunday when Will Hilton is due to fly.