Busy Wednesday

There was quite a lot going on yesterday, what with one thing and another. Mike Sheppard converted to the Junior...…..



Looking cool after landing

And then a very large whirly thing appeared, hovered around a bit and landed on the gliding side, then departed again.  Aircraft spotters will recognise this as an Apache.

 

New toy

John and Nick took advantage of a bit of sunshine yesterday to rig and fly their new toy - a turbo Duo Discus. The vis was very poor but they managed to find their way back to the airfield.

Happy smiling faces

Ready to go

Phil practising for the tug of war

The show comes to Booker

This weekend the Elite event is taking over the airfield, filling it with expensive cars and boats and planes. Booker has risen to the occasion with a new set of display materials, and a newly painted clubhouse.

The stand

Clubhouse adorned with flags and banners

Meanwhile those who went over to Haddenham to fly had a fantastic day with Nils, Denis and Geoff completing a 515km task to Presteigne, Chipping Warden, Donington. Well done all.

Hot and blue

Record breaking weather it may be, but it's not very good for cross country flying so most of the action has been training and trial lessons. Steve gave it a go on Saturday and dropped in on the ridge field on the way back, to be greeted by some handsome black cattle.

Today the hangar was emptied and the fleet parked out in the trailer park to make way for the event taking over the airfield on 11th and 12th May - our hangar will be one of the exhibition halls.

From Thursday 10th May to Sunday 13th May all solo flying will be at Thame, where we will be guests of the Upward Bound Trust. There will be a K21 available there for check flights.
Back to normal on Monday 14th May.

The forecast was right

Today the forecast promised good XC weather - and it delivered. The launchpoint was busy with single seaters heading off on task and two seaters being used for training. Even the T21 came out to take to the air.

Meanwhile, John Hubb was working hard on the clubhouse, scraping off the peeling paint and applying a new coat of wood stain. He also renovated the picnic tables. There is still a lot to do, so anyone with a paint brush is welcome to join in. Thanks for your efforts, John,

One panel complete. The supervisor appears to be making tea.

Nice smart picnic table.

A new intake of cadets joins the club

Yesterday the latest group of young people to join our successful cadet scheme came along for an introductory meeting. Amongst other topics they had a safety briefing.....and a long discussion about T shirt colours. Afterwards the senior cadets gave them a ride in the sim.

Meanwhile, Rob was up a ladder scrubbing the bus as prep for giving it a new paint job.

We suggested something along the lines of Jackson Pollock, which would be fun to apply, but it seems he has other plans. We'll have to wait and see.

Instructor training week finally sees the sun

Today there was warm sunshine, blue sky and cumulus - finally the instructor training was to be actual flying in real gliders. The day turned out to be soarable but with fairly poor vis. It was a very busy day for training, and some private owners ventured out to Bicester in the murk.

Ready to go - again

All out

The airfield is drying out quickly but in places is still a quagmire, so occasionally a bit of extra effort was required.

Triple tow

Maddi has been working hard all week on patter and all that, this afternoon she went for a bit of R&R in the Duo, and came back with a pic of the vario showing 6.2kts.

George and Maddi

We packed up a bit early in order to get to the AGM.

Last Thursday - corny gliding photo

For those that didn't fly their own glider on Thursday (ie everyone except me), it was probably better than you thought and anyone more adventurous than me probably would have gone somewhere - but not far.  Blue but soarable.  I feel I let the side down as there are now quite a few flights on the BGA Ladder and we should get a few Booker XC flights loaded. Here is one of those corny "look how good my thermal was" photos, just to prove there really has been nearly 4 knots for 20 seconds on one day this year.

This looks as though somebody is paying attenton:-http://www.generalaviationappg.uk/all-party-parliamentary-group-brands-brize-and-oxford-airspace-proposals-unsafe/

Aeros in the sun

The sunshine today brought out a fair few members onto the airfield, which was a bit soggy in places but usable. Amongst them was Maddi who did a bit of practice with Graham and then flew a solo sequence for her Standard Aerobatics badge. Well done Maddi!

Filling in the paperwork

The famous Easter Egg Cup aerobatics comp has been postponed from this weekend until better weather is assured. Watch this space.