Exams
The wind forecast was mixed with all my web-site resources all reporting slightly different things. Flying was of secondary importance as today, I had travelled to Suffolk to sit my pilot exam.
On arrival I setup a desk and chair in Mendlesham's hanger and Richard handed over the exam paper and answer sheet. I had 1 hour and 45 mins to complete the exam. Meanwhile, everyone else headed off to Mickfield Hall which appeared to be the most appropriate site for the predominately southerly wind.
The pilot exam itself was much harder and of a format that I had not expected but I worked through it and finished it in just over an hour. I then re-read the entire paper and changed some of my answers - later I'd realised I should have kept with the originals!
As I finished the exam, the guys returned from Mickfield Hall. The wind direction and landing options over at Mickfield were deemed unsuitable so Mendlesham's west facing runway would be used.
After everyone rigged their gliders, myself included, the fickle wind did a 180 and the decision to reverse the set-up was made. Unfortunately for the rest of us, that meant carrying our rigged gliders the full length of the runway.
At the western end of the runway and the wind predominately blowing from the south, winching operations began... sort of! With a 90 degree crosswind no-one rushed to their gliders!
Conditions hinted of thermal activity and every now and then the wind was pulled around to a more suitable direction for launching. Casual launches then ensued with Richard taking the first two. His verdict, very cross wind; timing a launch was critical and the landing approach was unusually bumpy.
With that information, I prepared to launch. My first launch was tricky and I struggled to keep the glider flying towards the winch - the crosswind made this really tricky! After I had achieved a moderate 600 feet on tow and being almost directly over the winch, I released and began my slow sink back to earth. As Richard had implied earlier, the air was pretty lumpy so I pulled on extra speed for safely and touched down just short of the runway.
My second launch was much better, but again I struggled keeping the glider pointed towards the winch. This time it felt like my left wing was being pushed upwards, perhaps it was a thermal? I couldn't be sure, so continued for the full duration of the tow. After release, I flew back to where I thought this thermal may have been. I bumped into something, but couldn't exploit it and eventually ended up on the runway.
By the time of my third launch the fickle wind had now switched from a south/south-east to a westerly. It looked like the sea-breeze had settled in. Faced with the prospect of hauling everything back to the opposite end of the runway we all decided to call it a day. After we packed up we headed to the Fleece in Mendlesham for a quick drink and thereafter I hit the road and returned home.
Pilot Exam
As for my pilot exam, well, I'll be adding some more questions to the pilot exam on this website and I'll update this diary entry when my results are in! Fingers crossed!
Edit As promised, my exam results are in! Success, I'm now a pilot! Meteorology 91%, Airlaw & Navigation 97%, Flight Theory & Instrumentation 74%. Overall mark 87%, so I just scraped through on the Flight Theory & Instrumentation! I guess I'll be doing my Aerotow endorsement next! Watch this space!
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