Thursday 5th

Good call on Colin's part to move wet Wednesday to thermic Thursday.  That said, the sky looked good but the thermals proved elusive with only a couple of folks managing around an hour and Justin B comfortably getting his 2 hour flight in the bag (comfortable as in - plenty of time in hand).  The Red Arrows passed between us and Newbury several times in the day kept us to the west side of the airfield.  With lots of drift on offer in a fair westerly breeze this limited our options to drift with a thermal.  We were reward with a puff of smoke from the Arrows (unfortunately, I missed it).
The rumour that one of the qualifications for being a CFI is to have eyes in the back of your head (and elsewhere) seemed to be confirmed when Colin received a text from our esteemed CFI enquiring who was flying the club's Vega over Burbage.
Near the end of the day a passing glider popped out his get-me-home turbo and fired it up low over Shalbourne.  Bob B said to me "I hope no one in the village thinks that's anything to do with us".  Shortly afterwards I had to head home and as I was about to pull onto the road when a Chelsea Tractor turned in to the opening to the field.  I stopped to advise the driver how to proceed safely to the launch point and discovered he had come to check that we hadn't started flying powered aircraft.  A kinda variation on a Neighbourhood Watch scheme?

Colin "honest guv, it just came off in my hand" Baines flying the Shalbourne simulator.  Note the realistic airbrake lever.