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Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Chaffing at the bit at Chapel

Scruff searches the sky for hangy Dave

What a cracking day it turned out to be despite me thinking we would only achieve a limited amount, how wrong you can be!

A quick visit to Perran where there was plenty of beach saw a few gliders scratching but the wind way off to the SW so after a "brief" (hill brief) stay we upped sticks and headed to Chapel Porth to hopefully get some tandem flying in but no guarantee for the students as the tide was an issue.

On arrival the wind was perfect for hangies and I rigged the tandem whilst assessing conditions.  with high pressure around the tide was actually lower than expected and still with an hour and a half to go the beach opened up nicely so Hangy Dave (Newquay) and Ian L (Bristol) hot footed back to the truck to get the training glider to hopefully get some hill soaring in.

Sam J (N.Devon) was along to start his tandem rating course and made the ideal passenger to demonstrate to James who was down on holiday and had a surprise flight booked for him.  Sam and I had a cracking flight introducing him to the basics of taking others up before popping back in on top to take James up.

The demo' flight worked and James and myself made a cracking launch and were soon up and away sharing the air with Paul H and Nigel W on their hangies.  we had a cracking flight with the sea so clear and the sun shining right along the coast. Not only did James get a chance to fly the glider he also got a free history lesson on the local mining! The landing was as good as the take off and it was a very smiley James reunited with his partner Kim to continue their holiday.

By now the beach had opened up nicely and it was time to get the students going. Ian l led the way for his first hill soaring flight on the hangy and he did a great job of it settling in nicely after a couple of tense beats.  Conditions slowly eased back seeing him getting lower but his nerve (and mine) held and slowly with a bit of encouragement he relaxed again and made enough height to come back in on top after a good 20 minutes.  It was a very happy Ian that unclipped after a first class landing, nice.

Hangy Dave wasted no time in getting off although a little nervous after a 10 week lay off he soon smoothed out and as the lift returned climbed out comfortably  to join the others up high. Dave had no problem with height in fact had to make a good effort to lose it before also performing a first class landing followed by a classic Dave quote as he extolled the virtues of flying but unfortunately it is unprintable!

Conditions remained good and with the beach still there both guys got another flight in adding 360's to their repertoire and having a ball. Their landings once again  were spot on and the looks on their faces said it all.

Next it was back into the Tandem to take Sam up again before letting him loose on me. We had a fun afternoon with Sam taking me up 3 times and only trying to wipe me out on one of them! No it was not that bad just that I make a very nervous passenger .......

By the time we landed after the final flight it was getting on, the wind was easing and the beach was gone so we called it a day but what a good day it was, if only we could have more like this.

good to see Steve M getting to grips with the ASKA and as ever really weird to see it up in the air with us on the hangies it just looks so strange.

Quote of the day " ******* awesome"

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