Got my logbook, ready to fly

Well I have a spare hat and my old log book packed in my bag in preparation for this evenings trip to Gransden Lodge for a company social trip. According to the log the last time I flew was in 1992 so it's been awhile. I actually had two flights that day. The first one I managed to over cook the winch launch and snapped the cable at 200ft which required a rather quick instructor response to land it down the runway. The second one was a rather more sedate 37 minutes of "street" soaring.

The winch launch is probably the most dramatic part of the flight. Basically you attach a long piece of wire to the glider and wind it in at the other end of the airfield launching the glider much like a kite. This means your attitude is the incredibly un-glider like steep climb and also compared to the rest of the flight quite noisy. I have to say I preferred the self-launched motorised gliders I did my training in as the launch is much gentler. Having said that I still prefer gliding to powered flight. It is basically you and your mind making the best use of the natural environment which holds more of a challenge than having a big noisy gas guzzling engine on nose. It shall be interesting to see how much I can remember given the intervening 15 years.