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"Cold but fabulous", which could describe a number of things but specifically describes today at AD. We even did a bit of soaring the cold air.

Thanks to everyone who helped out: you did a fab job!

A busy day launching from runway 09 due to the easterly wind direction. A visiting photographer was practicing their skills taking photos of gliders, aircraft and the people at the club. Also congratulations to Jack, our newest qualified winch driver.

Another busy day, the established high pressure creating a low inversion but a very pretty view once above it. Two visitors from Harrow on a short holiday in the Cotswolds dropped in for an aerotow trial lesson to see it from above. Roger was kept busy in the K21 flying club members and the yellow K13 was used to fly the UWE members. 2 more Bronze completions were signed off, so a very productive day. Thanks to everyone who helped.

Another glorious day brought plenty of optimism and the day did not disappoint. Our two seat fleet was kept busy with ab initio training, refreshers and trial lessons including one mile high purchased from the office and then airborne with the hour. The K23 and private gliders had soaring flights although it seemed more difficult than in recent days with blue skies all day.
Huge congratulations to our latest new solo pilots. Oliver led the way in the K21 during the morning and Tom followed later in the afternoon, this time in the K13. Both were rightly proud of their achievements and had beaming smiles. Well done!
Thanks to all that helped today and stuck around to put the kit away as the sun was setting.

Beautiful sunny start to March and plenty of thermals during the afternoon with cloudbase at 4000 feet above Aston Down. Great to see the UWE K13 soaring, it certainly stands out! (Its the yellow one) Lots of single seaters out for a first go after the long winter months. A few cross country flights done with entries on the club ladder to kick off the season. Thanks are due to todays team for providing winch launches and to our intrepid tug pilots who were kept VERY busy the whole day.

A surprising number of early risers turned out at 7:30 am. to get the kit out and get us into the air by 9:51. Early flights were above the broken cloud at 1,000'. By mid-morning the cloud had cleared to long spells of sunshine and there were even some thermals to be had in the afternoon. A large number of members turned out to fly and the instructors were kept busy in the two-seaters. The ground team led by Paul King did an excellent job of keeping the launch rate up and by the time the last glider landed, just after sunset, we had completed over 60 flights. Many thanks to Tim Andrews and Andy Smith for driving the winch.

Rain today but a good day. Geoff held forth to give the Bronze lecture on Meteorology (2) to a small but appreciative audience in the morning. Then a happy band of volunteers helped to de-rig the Marianne (in light drizzle) followed by assisting Tim to put the wings on his Mosquito. Finally we rigged the K23 (see picture) and put her in the hangar. All before tea time.

A day where patience was definitely needed, but it paid off.
A small, but optimistic bunch got all the kit out ready to start flying nice and early but the weather had other ideas. First launch fine. Second launch, 600ft cloud base. Damn! We retired to the clubhouse in faint hope it would clear, plus we had a NOTAM to avoid. After much tea and talk we decided to give it another go and to everyone's surprise were achieving full launches to over 1500ft.
And this gave the opportunity for Natascha to show off everything she had learned and in the end Brian 'ran out of excuses' and sent her for her first solo. Congratulations. Proud dad Thomas was nervously watching, your turn next!
In the end, well worth sticking around and everyone left with a big smile. Thank you everyone for helping and staying to the end to pack away.

Phew, that was a busy day! First launch was at 10.30am and we were still launching after 7.00pm. A large number of gliders headed off cross country, mostly to Wales. Jack Helm, flying the K8, completed a successful first field landing somewhere near Nymspfield- well done. Patrice, a colleague of Etienne's, enjoyed his One Day Course with Chris Tooze in the DG500 and Debbie Thomas did a stalwart job of instructing in the K13. A visiting T21 had several trips up to a chilly 3,000'. Many thanks to Doug Gardner, Matt Pateman and a visitor called Tim for driving the winch.

After a slow ish start a good day was had by all. Dan Hayday completed his BI checks - congratulations!
We had a busy grid by midday and despite some launching issues many enjoyed a good day with some off round Kidderminster and Brecon. Others enjoyed some good training flights including plenty of soaring.
Thanks to those who drove the winch and ran the launch point.