As we near the end of a short February I'd like to note that it has been a relatively quiet month for flying at the club, due mostly to the weather.
I flew right at the end of Jan and then again on the weekend of the 12th of Feb where I had 3 flights in the K8. The day looked promising but with the cloud base stuck a few hundred feet above the launch altitude there was nowhere really to go. I spent the flights practicing thermalling turns and stalling off the turns as the soaring season is now approaching. none the less we had quite a busy day on the field and managed a respectable number of flights even if we were down to a single cable on the winch (mechanical failure of the other drums drive shaft)
On the 19th I took my bronze theory exam along with Andrew preece and John potter, 90 questions on airlaw, airmanship, navigation, radiotelephony and meteorology. I am pleased to say we all passed and owe thanks to Danny Lamb for the very informative lectures. I also want to mention Robin Matinus, well done on passing your pre-solo exam taken at the same time.
I flew on the 27th of Feb, the weekend had been a washout but there was a small window on Sunday morning in which we could fly. As both of the Glass two seaters had been taken offline for inspections I decided to start my bronze practical work with none other than Danny Lamb. We took JXM (K13) and Danny briefed me on stalling, with out CB SIFT CBE and HASSLL checks completed we hooked on and went for a launch. As suspected Danny gave me a simulated cable break half way up which was handled ok except for the bend in the ground run due to the wind weather cocking the tail. we then took another launch in which we abandoned 2/3's the way up as it was a little fast, Danny used this one to do some mush stalls and put me in an out of position on the downwind leg as we had some height. We completed the session with a gradual power failure on the winch. I nabbed a quick solo flight before the rain front arrived and had a very quick interesting circuit in mostly 4-6kts of sink, I usually start high key at 800 and arrive at low key around 600 but tightening up the circuit running through sink I arrived at low key around 450 and luckily flew the diagonal and base leg in steady to make it back for a normal approach, otherwise it would have been an early turn in and long walk back to the launch point.
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