I came, I soar, I went.

With the previous weekend's weather looking decidedly unfriendly for flying, and work being a bit on the hectic side, I decided to take Friday off work, stay over at the gliding club and get two days flying done. The added bonus was that as the end of the week drew closer, it started to look more and more likely that a reasonable strength westerly would activate the local ridge and offer the opportunity for some winch launch practice, and so it did. Friday morning - I arrived at the club just in time for briefing, I'd factored in a little more time for the weekday drive, but had not counted on the realisation of the persistent threat of encountering an articulated lorry reversing down the 25% gradient of Sutton Bank, having obviously decided getting to the top was not an option. Mid morning, and it was my turn to fly. Not wanting to waste the chance to right the wrongs of the past, I went dual in the club DG-1000. The brief was that we would launch, and then using the rid...

Gliding is a hobby that keeps on giving you that little bit more to do. When I first started out just over a year ago, the thought of being able to do my own landing or take-off seemed like a million years away, but those milestones quickly passed. Thoughts then turned to solo flight, and with confidence and experience growing, that too came and went; the first one wasn't much more than an extended circuit and all a bit nerve wracking. Fast forward to now and I'm disappointed with myself if I don't manage to stay airborne for at least an hour. The more I've learnt about the sport, the more I've come to realise what's possible and so now, merely being able to fly just represents the start of the journey - I wish I'd understood earlier that gliding offers the chance for long cross country flights for personal achievements, competitive flying and aerobatics amongst other things. One of the reasons I've taken up writing this blog is to try and get the wo...

I didn't fly last weekend, because despite some very hard stares - the plaster on the walls of my new kitchen didn't dry in time, and so painting had to take priority. The room looks amazing, but it did mean that it had been a good three weeks between flights of any significant length, so it was good to be able to spend two full days this weekend at the gliding club, with the bonus of a promising looking weather forecast. I arrived a little late to the Saturday morning briefing but apparently there had been talk of 4000' cloud-bases and great skies. The presence of a number of club pundits suggested that there was definite optimism for the day ahead. The briefing room emptied and most of everyone disappeared to go and rig their own gliders for flight, and it soon became clear that we were a little short handed for help with club flying, so I spent my morning doing my best with launching and logging aircraft away. It had been a while since my last flight, so I needed to ...