It’s been a busy weekend at Vale of White Horse Gliding Centre, with a scout group flying on Friday evening, several introductory flights on Saturday, the club AGM after flying on Saturday evening, and further guest and member flying on Sunday. Saturday in particular was an excellent day for these experience flights, with blue skies, light wind straight down the runway, and cloud base at around 3400 feet above the airfield, all of which made for beautiful views over the Wiltshire and Oxfordshire countryside.
We were pleased to meet Cheryl and Grahame Thorndyke at the club on Saturday. Grahame had booked an introductory flight for Cheryl’s birthday, which she didn’t know about until the day. Grahame and Cheryl were visiting family in the area, and expecting another grandchild soon, which will mean more visits to the area – we’d be delighted to see them again, if they want to spend a bit more time in the air! Seen here after Cheryl’s flight with one of our instructors, Gordon.
Peter Barlow also joined us, and as well as doing his own soaring, was able to watch seven or eight red kites scanning the adjacent farmer’s field in their distinctive soaring pattern as they looked for lunch
Michael Sweeney also flew with Stuart Peplar, one of our Introductory Flight Pilots, in the Twin Astir.
…and we finished our introductory flights for the day with a 14th birthday surprise for Luke, who came along with mum Sarah and some other family members to watch his flight, and to learn a bit about how the gliding club operates. Many happy returns to Luke – BTW, 14 is a great age to start gliding, as it’s the age when we can send our juniors solo for the first time (once they’ve demonstrated the skills and judgement to do it, of course)
