The Levellers

If you venture round the peri track now you no longer need to fear for your car's suspension or the state of your boots. Yesterday a gang of members set about filling in the enormous potholes with a variety of machinery - a digger, a dumper truck and a steamroller - as well as shovels and rakes.

A typical pond

Boys' toys

The CFI executing a tricky bit of reversing



Loading up

Of course there always have to be people leaning on shovels

Taking a breather

And meanwhile John and Robert were making hay in the trailer park. John reckoned he'd walked 8 miles by the time he'd finished going up and down, up and down.......

One man went to mow



Strimmer in chief

Well done to all those who lent a hand: William, Richard, John H, Adrian, Callum, Jim W, Nick, John O, Henry, George -  and the mowing team Rob and John Hubb.

Halfway round the world for a solo

We had a visitor from Hong Kong recently, Chris Hale, who came for a course. Despite the weather, he got enough flying in to go solo on his second week. Well done Chris!

A little apprehensive beforehand......

.....and afterwards a big grin!

Booker Common Fete

Today we nipped across to the other side of the M40 to take part in the Booker Common fete, at the invitation of the organisers. It was yet another overcast day but there were lots of people out enjoying themselves and we sold some trial lessons to local residents.

Plenty of interest

There was a bit of rain towards the end of the afternoon which required a bit of inventiveness to keep the Cabriolet Junior dry.

Not sure this mod would get past EASA

Many thanks to George and Sam for helping with the set up, and to Chris, Hedda, Robert T, William and Bob S for helping with the day.

A busy couple of days

Yesterday we hosted a visit from the Samuel Rhodes School in Islington, a school for children with special needs. 10 of their year 11 pupils (age 16) came along to see what gliding is like. All of them had a go and did extremely well - one student even did the landing (with prompts of course). They all went away with big smiles on their faces.

Today the weather just couldn't make up its mind, there were threatening showers to the south which never quite reached us, but there were spits of rain the entire day. We did our best with what was on offer. John H and cadet Filip set the record with a flight of nearly an hour. Nik Von Merveldt started the day very gloomy over his lack of progress but after a check flight and a couple of K21 solos he converted to the Pegasus and was delighted with its handling. Just shows what a bit of concentrated practice will achieve.

The grin says it all

First Solo

Well done Luca who soloed in KCZ on Sunday!

Summer is back

After a week of the most unseasonable weather imaginable the sun returned today. It didn't produce a x-country day but there was plenty of local soaring, training and trial flights. Steve did a lot of instruction in the Falke, including sending Paul Clarke solo - congratulations Paul.

Paul setting off on his own for the first time

Klippeneck 2016 Round up

The Klippeneck 2016 Expedition is sadly over but it is fair to say that everyone involved had a great time and enjoyed some superb flying in a wonderful location and with the local Klippeneck Gliding Club being the most accommodating hosts. They let us use their facilities as if they were ours, let us get on and do what we wanted to do with the minimum of fuss and oversight whilst providing a tug and hangar space as needed. We are very lucky to have found such a location and club.

The last couple of days were good flying days again with the club gliders being used to go cross country and gain badge claims where relevant. Paul F completed his Silver duration and distance in 319 and Zeljko completed his Silver height (but only by getting below airfield height at one point to then recover and get to 7,000ft - don't forget the airfield is 3,000ft asl) - well done guys..

The last day culminated with Graham S organising a formation flight of his Petrel, the Duo Discus and the K21. This proved a challenge akin to a juggler keeping plates spinning as there was only one tug and following a shower having gone through leaving dead air with no scope to soar. One pass was achieved as basically the gliders were down to circuit height before they all got together.

A good mix of gliders at the launch point

319 with Paul F on his Silver attempt

Tuttlingen with Lake Konstanz in the background

Important packing

Ahh - leave that behind, no space for it!

An unlikely trio!