The Historic Flight was operating in smaller numbers than usual today with some of the VGS staff on duty. However there was a considerable amount of soaring with the Barge spotted at over 4,000ft. As usual when you dress for the occasion you fly a circuit when you don’t dress for the occasion you are certain to get away. Excellent day, enjoyable flying in fantastic visibility.
The Historic Flight has been active today and the previous two Saturdays. 2 weeks ago a lot of launches and soaring was achieved. Last week the weather was not very kind but a small group flew the Swallow with one flight exceeding 30 minutes. Today was very windy in fact too windy to risk bring the mighty Barge out the hangar, however the Mk3, Swallow, Prefect and Venture all took to the air. Plenty of soaring with excellent visibility. The day ended with a truly magnificent BBQ organised by Sarah.
Since Christmas we have been operating with small numbers gradually getting a core crew current again in all aspects of the Historic Flight. On Saturday with attendees in double figures for the first time nobody was that enthusiastic with strong winds forecast and a cloud base lowering to under 1000′.
It just goes to show that it is often worth making the effort as the forecast turned out to be spectacularly wrong! We ended up with 15-18 kts wind and beautiful clear skies all day!
With good numbers of ground handlers the Sedburgh, MKIII, Swallow and Venture were all flying. Ian Griffen converted to the MKIII and Swallow, Luke Short the MKIII and Craig Ullrich was welcomed back into the fold. It was really good to see new faces on the airfield, not least Jake, Dill, Yak and Andy White from the VGS who came along just to join in. Thanks to these guys as they made the operation so easy as we couldn’t keep them out of the landrover and they were always willing to push gliders where needed. Hopefully the word will spread to other junior VGS staff !
With the grounding continuing more much needed maintenance has taken place. Jono and Webby spent an entire day repairing the Sedbergh trailer to safely secure the glider inside it. This work continued today with the braking system being overhauled as the old cabling had disintegrated.
Al’s Sedbergh WB981 has been thoroughly washed to remove all the muck following storage at Keevil. WB981 will hopefully be C of A’d soon and taken to Syerston for this years IDT weeks.
With everything conspiring to prevent aviation from Hullavington we were unable to fly the Historic Gliders this weekend.
Many thanks to those that turned up for a long day of much needed maintenance – it’s days like these that are essential to enabling all to enjoy the lovely gliders we have access to !
The Swallow had its C of A and has also had the gap sealing replaced under the wings so should fly a lot quieter! The Grasshopper has been loaded into its trailer for off site maintenance, the trailer was also thoroughly cleaned. The Prefect was also given a wash and the Sedbergh washed and polished to protect the new paintwork.
With the VGS grounded the opportunity was taken to fly the historic gliders over the Sunday and Monday and enjoy a social with friends and family having a BBQ. A hardy few even stayed over in tents.
Over the two days we managed nearly 130 launches ! There was soaring available both days and the CFI even had a nibble at the wave in the Sedbergh.
Neil Payne produced an awesome BBQ which went on into the evening. There was much chat from those who had the green ball up in the MKIII !!
Here are a few photos to set the scene :
And another cracking shot from a GoPro attached to the Prefect following the MKIII onto base leg.
After two consecutive Fridays, we had the luxury of the airfield for Good Friday and Easter Saturday and managed 60 launches over those two days.
Welcome to the syndicate to Luke, Toby, Andy, Ian and Paul. We’ve had many people converting to new types, there are some excellent pictures on the 621 Historic Flight Facebook page, including this one:
A small group braved the heavy showers yesterday and our new season has started. Fortunately the not forecast 180 wind allowed rapid retrieves to the hanger to protect the Sedbergh from torrential downpours. Everybody had a couple of flights and all agree the Sedbergh is flying beautifully.
At the pub after it was decided to rest the MKIII this year and put the Swallow, Prefect and Grasshopper on 3rd party insurance. Hopefully throughout the summer Al’s restored Cadet MKII will make an appearance.
We will be flying again next Friday. At present both the Sedberth and Swallow are airworthy.
2 Historic Flight members that can at last smile, but enjoyed every minute of a colossal restoration
