Between 24 and 28 June, we had the pleasure of hosting another Soaring Eagles week of adventurous training gliding for the benefit of RAF and Army personnel based at Lossiemouth and Kinloss. The aims of this exercise are to:
a. Develop the physical and mental robustness of personnel through exposure to a controlled risk environment, so as to support the operational effectiveness of the Armed Forces.
b. Provide flying training and instruction for tri-service glider pilots in order for them to progress their gliding qualifications.
c. To raise the standards of airmanship and flying skills to further contribute to flight safety across the tri-service gliding associations and the Armed Forces as a whole.
The course was planned for 6 ab-initio pilots to progress towards first solo but due to a couple of late dropouts, Matt Davidson took a reserve place to get back into gliding after several years off, and a couple of the RAFGSA instructors who came up to run the course took the opportunity to extend their qualifications. We therefore didn’t do as much circuit bashing as we normally do on these courses so the winch was used much less than usual – not helped by the south-easterly wind on Day 3. Monday was a glorious day with booming skies and a great start to the week with the last 2 flights of the day launched by the winch and staying up for 1 hour and 45 minutes. However, Tuesday wasn’t such a great day, starting with a low cloudbase and the wind switching from NW to NE, but we made the best of it until rain stopped play at 2 o’clock. On Wednesday, the wind was south-easterly and soon went outside limits for the winch …..and wasn’t that great for aerotowing either! However, we persevered and managed to get a reasonable amount of training done, with some flights being extended by weak wave just to the north of the airfield. On Thursday we had a howling southerly wind so we didn’t open the hangar doors. Instead, the students were given excellent ground training briefs from the RAF Central Gliding School and then some spin training in the club’s VR simulator. The forecast for Friday was for strong winds and rain in the morning so no-one was holding out much hope for the day. However, by our 0900 briefing, the rain had stopped, the sun was making an appearance and the wind, although strong and a bit gusty, was straight down the strip. We therefore decided to get the aircraft out and go flying while we could. By midday we had flown everyone and with the gusts getting a bit stronger we decided to call it a day. All in all a very successful week’s flying with all of the students making very good progress although the weather made it impossible for us to get anyone to that first solo. Stats for the week: 19 winch launches, 13 aerotows, 16 motor glider flights all adding up to over 21 hours of flight time. The “hog of the week” was Lance Corporal Levi Haddon, a PTI from Kinloss barracks who amassed a total of 4 hours 25 minutes flying time, but the average for all the students was around 3½ hours. Of course, we couldn’t do any of this without the support of volunteers from both Highland and Fulmar Gliding Clubs and a special mention has to go to Toni for flying the tug, Roger for driving the winch and Julian (with the assistance of Josh) running the launch point all week. Last but certainly not least, our own instructors Colin (who was there all day every day), Ellen, John T and Mike were instrumental to the success of the week.
Our next Soaring Eagles week is planned for 5-9 August and club members are welcome to come along to help out and maybe get some flying in your own machines too. For the August exercise, rather than having just 6 students we are going to be providing a one-day flying experience for up to 8 students per day – a total of up to 40 over the week. Let’s hope the weather plays ball!