A Sunday Morning at Beeding Bowl

The Chairman decided yesterday evening to select Beeding Bowl as todays flying location as the weather forecasts earlier yesterday were somewhat changeable.

We met at the car park at 9AM and I for one had not flown at this bowl before, so I was very excited to attend however, due to model unserviceability I was unable to take any model to fly. This was quickly rectified by the Chairman offering me a session with the Club trainer.

Present today at the bowl was Rob S with the Club Wildthing and taking on the demanding role as Duty Instructor, Tony C, Kevin M who brought along his Wildthing and a modified Lidl’s chuck glider, Gordon S, Mark V with a Middle Phase and Robin S with his Aztec.

Beeding Bowl looking towards the sea

To start with the wind was very light but did increase as the morning wore on, visibility was excellent. Flying commenced. Gordon S continues to improve and managed a considerable amount of “Stick time” this morning flying the Club Wildthing while coping with challenging conditions with the lift just dropping off at times. This was all under the expert instruction of Rob S. Some of Gordon’s family came along to offer support. Mike had a trial flight, once again under the supervision of Rob S. Mike being a professional pilot was a natural flyer and took to it like a “Duck to Water”. Kevin M was doing well until his Lidl glider had a hard landing and ejected the ballast weight. He then continued to fly his Wildthing. Mark V also has a small issue with a broken control horn on his Middle Phase but did get some flying in before the broken horn. Mark then had a long flight with the club Wildthing. Robin S flew his Aztec expertly and had a very good flying session. I managed some flying with the Club’s trainer, this Wildthing 46 is slightly different to mine as it has a greater chord length but in my opinion flies very well.

Kevin M's Models

Gordon S in Control of the Wildthing

The rain then started, and I decided to call it a day so made my way back to the car. In the car park I met Rob and James P assembling a Ridge Runt. As it was raining by then, they decided to wait till it cleared and proceeded to Mill Hill where they had a good session of flying.

In summary, a very nice morning’s flying with excellent company as always.