Mid summer week seemed a sensible time to pick for flying vintage gliders! With a not too promising forecast we started the week with Al’s Sedbergh having to stay at Keevil due to strong winds. In fact the strong winds were set to stay until Friday along with heavy showers. It turned out that on most days we wouldn’t have been able to fly the Sedbergh due to the wind strength so instead turned to the MKIII which coped admirably with 25kt gusts! Joined by Rick and his SHK and the Astir DNE, our Swallow completed the line up for the majority of the week. Only on Friday did the winds abate and the Prefect came out on what turned out to be a soarable morning.
With large chunks of the midweek days washed out we spent some time cleaning the gliders, the MKIII had a brand new front seat fitted whilst KK and Dom fitted a new canvas tilt too the winch.
A couple of successful evenings allowed Martin Wintle and the Summerells to get airborne with a typical English summer BBQ after and just to prove we did get some decent weather I’ll insert the following photo! Along with a nice one Rob took of Tony on the approach.
All in, a great week despite the weather. Mike Newton flew the MKIII for the first time since 1979, KK also flew the Swallow again after a similar time. Dom Polhill converted to the MKIII and then the Swallow. We managed 109 flights and a bit over 18 hours airborne.