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Congratulations to David on is first solo today. His achievement capping another busy day with a variety of other activities on the airfield. We welcomed seven visitors for the Women's Gliding Day and they all left very happy. Ava attempted her five hours and Jack had a go at 50km. Both were ultimately foiled by the weather, which was good but not that good! Well done for trying! Thank you everyone that came out and helped.

Well done to Garry, Chris and Paul who have achieved their BI(S) rating.

2 more good weather days so plenty of flying. Looks like spring may have arrived! Photo courtesy of Barry.

Thursday 19th and Friday 20th March, the club hosted 6 people from Airbus on a flight appreciation course where they learned about some aspects of glider design and then flew actual gliders to see this in action. We had perfect weather for this, which made the 2 days quite de-stressed for everyone. We hope they take back a different view and something of the love for flying that gliding provides.

Started on runway 08 with a gentle easterly wind. We had the winch and tug out and managed about a dozen flights before the wind shifting to SE made a change of runway necessary. Another blue day with mild temperatures. Spring is coming! We had one first solo today as well - congratulations to Simon Jackson on achieving this first milestone.

A good day coincided with the weekend! Lots of training flights done and 3 of our most experienced cross country pilots took the opportunity to get some kms. Thermals over 5000' were reported. Also a record number of launches for this year - 53 launches, both winch and aerotow. Lovely sunset as the club gliders were put away. Photo (c) Jack Boynes.

The BGA has published the 2026 Safe Start booklet which can be viewed and downloaded here:
gliding.co.uk

Fog and then low cloud stopped flying today. However we used the time to change a wheel on the cable tow car and to rig the Club's ASK23.

Unfortunately, due to the increasing wind strength, today's flying was cancelled.

The last day of February brought fine weather for a change. The wind started off WNW with it forecast to change to WSW, so runway 26 was the obvious choice. Despite interruptions from a cable break, which needed the dynema rope to be spliced in 2 places, and a rain shower, we managed 31 launches in 6 hours of activity. 7 student pilots were flown, 2 winter refreshers, a site check for a visiting pilot and 2 air experience flights also, along with a few solo flights. We look forward to more of this in March.