Typical of the time of year, our cool morning quickly became warm and sunny and, with IKW denied to us, we prepared GYK and GJY for their trip to the 30 flight line. John Knox, as our tuggie, had to be away by 11.00 and as we were heading out with the van and the first glider, he was wasting no time, waiting patiently for us to commence the flying part of the day. Some activity had been taking place on 12 but once we set up, it decided to join us on 30. 

With Tony Sorensen waiting for our AEF to turn up, Arthur Mailey and I were the only ones there ready to fly so with a glider and a tug sitting idle, we launched at 0936 into a clear, calm sky in GYK. Our consciences were clear as we expected to be back very soon so would not delay Tony and his passenger Debbie Powell, and we didn’t cause any delay at all – 17 mins later, we were back on the ground just in  time to see John Nestor launch in GJY for their only flight, another 17 mins.

Tony and Debbie’s launch at 1028 was cutting it fine so we took the “Get thee behind me Satan’ approach with JY’s retrieve and took it straight back to the tie-down area. After exactly 30 mins in the air, Tony and Debbie were back on 06 and GYK was also put to bed while the paperwork, etc, was attended to and our tuggie took his departure.  

For such a tiny amount of flying, it was quite a busy day. Bob Turner had come out to help with DI activities and other preparations before he headed off to attend to his own tasks at home. Ken Mitchell and Bob Hainsworth received no flying rewards for their contributions to the day so we owe them first ‘go’ next time they are out to fly. With flying over, we paused for a cool drink whereupon Peter John stopped by to up-date us on his doings since last year.

That was the extent of our Friday morning flying. Perhaps it was just as well as traffic seemed to increase as the day wore on so, maybe, we had the best of the day though there were some scraps of encouraging cloud trying to develop as we left.

Maybe it will be ready in time for Sunday.