Wednesday 30th December. The influence of storm Frank was duly felt on Wednesday, the S’ly wind being strong and gusting to over 50 kts, accompanied by rain for much of the day. Accordingly, the hangar doors were not stirred but were a little shaken.
Thursday 31st. The moderate SSW’ly progressively backed into the S and increased to moderate to fresh as the day progressed, the increase leading to gusts in the mid 30 kts as a front approached, its rain starting to fall around 1600 hrs and adding to the 4.5 mm of rain that had fallen overnight. The day was predominately cloudy but the base was high enough to allow flying to take place, the first of the day’s 6 winch launches taking to the skies around 1020 hrs, as Andy Parish and Chris Ogden took off in K21 JVZ at the start of a 1:01 flight. This was the first of 4 flights to exceed an hour, with Steve Ogden having 1:15 in Astir DPO, Colin Troise having 1:05 solo in the DG500 and Day Member Peter Baker also exceeding the hour mark in his ASW28. Winch launching was replaced by ATs around 1330 hrs due to the backing of the wind into the S and a further 3 launches were flown, with Chris Ogden taking the first of these, again in K21 JVZ, but this time with Mike Smith as P1. Mike and Chris’s flight just exceeded 30 minutes, the only one of the 3 ATs to do so, but the day’s flying came to a halt when Fred Brown and Geoff Turner landed K21 KLW in Farmer Brown’s field at the base of the home bowl after 25 minutes of flying time. Speculation has it that Fred was making a desperate, last ditch, attempt to wrest the Aux Vaches trophy, presented to the pilot making the nearest field landing to the YGC club house, from Roger Burghall before the year end. However, with 2 km of, as the crow flies, distance to the club house it turned out to be a vain hope. With daylight rapidly fading and rain on its way, it was decided to make KLW safe in the field overnight and do the retrieve on New Year’s Day with a band of willing volunteers, hopefully collected as the result of the following email from office manager Josephine to the membership.
“We have an ASK21 in farmer Brown’s field and it was too late to get it out tonight. We need as many people as possible to help carry it out tomorrow. If you can spare the time please, please come along and give a hand. Many hands make light work. Fred Brown is going to co-ordinate. Start time 10 a.m. bring wellies or boots”.
Friday 1st January, 2016. And so it was that a 10 strong work party collected on New Year’s Day, including Tim Williamson, a member of the Nene Valley GC, who was in the area on holiday and visited the club in the hope of flying. (Thanks Tim and here’s hoping for better luck next time). 18 mm of rain had fallen overnight and dribs and drabs fell during a rather murky day as a moderate ESE’ly blew. The weather ensured that the retrieve was not only murky but, due to the overnight rain, decidedly mucky, the water logged nature of the field resulting in KLW having to be derigged and then the wings, tailplane and fuselage carried across 550 m of very muddy field to the trailer located on the nearest road. Adrian Melia has provided the following map of the area together with some recently and appropriately named features.
The caption under the above came with the map and is I believe a suggestion for P1 Fred Brown, rather than an addition by Farmer Brown. After some 2.5 hours of hard slog, the weary crew returned to site where KLW was rigged, washed and safely hangared, the crew finding welcome sustenance via bacon butties and hot drinks provided by Sarah Marsh. A photo of some of the crew preparing to carry KLW’s fuselage out of the field is shown in the next photo.
Saturday 2nd. Cloudy skies and further rain, 15 mm in total, were the result as another front slowly edged north over the course of the day, the wind being a moderate ESE’ly. With the site in cloud for most of the day no flying was possible.
Sunday 3rd. Yet another front made slow progress northwards, depositing an additional 25 mm of rain and keeping the site in cloud for all of the daytime hours. The wind, a light to moderate SSE’ly backed into the SE and increased to moderate to fresh, but this was of academic interest as there was no flying. However, speaking of academic interest, Mark Newburn, Tom Dale and Steve Ogden made progress on their understanding of Bronze C topics under the tutelage of John Carter and Bob Beck, with Mark going on to pass his Bronze C theory papers later in the day, so well done Mark.
Monday 4th. The depression responsible for the low cloud, rain and ESE/SE’ly flow of the last couple of days remained in place over the UK, so Monday was another day of moderate SE’ly winds, periods of light rain/drizzle and the site in cloud. The lack of flying and members did however mean that January’s Board Meeting could take place in the briefing room without any distractions.