My grandson Lewis’s 15 birthday is coming up very soon and I bought him a trial flight at the Bath and Wilts and North Dorset Gliding Club as a little gift.
We both went to visit the gliding site yesterday but there was no chance of flying due to the low cloud base. But today was better, so we chugged to there again in the green Citroen and this time he was lucky enough to get a short flight thanks to the folk at the club.
Inside the hanger yesterday
Getting ready. He had a quick briefing from Nigel -his instructor – on how to operate the parachute.before getting in.to the glider.
settling in.
waiting for another glider to land before hitching on the tow cable.
All ready now. Take up the slack.
That’s it for the pics. I had to move away from the launch area when the moment came and the launch and climb- out happens so quickly that I failed to get a good shot then.
It’s annoying that the camera doesn’t have viewfinder. Just a little TV screen on which to compose the pics., which is impossible to see properly when in bright sunlight.. So very tricky to get an action shot of the take-off and climb-out today.
I think he enjoyed all of his 8 minutes in the air although a bit taken aback by the sudden acceleration and steep climb from the winch launch. Sadly there were no good thermals at that time so his flight was quite short.
jimstimes 