Another day at Big Collin

Met up with my CP student Keith McGeown at Big Collin. Wind was well round to the South and light down at the cars. Part way up the hill the wind was stronger but starting to get gusty. I called ATC and got clearance into Class D airspace to 3,000ft! Keith had a short top to bottom flight with good stand up landing but on climbing the hill again further up the wind was getting gustier and stronger - around 11-12mph gusting to 19 and 20mph at times.

When it eased a little bit I took off to explore conditions but it was a bit of a roller coaster and no place for a student. Students George Darragh and Paul Cunningham had arrived but since it was too gusty to fly we went over Daily Inspection, Site Assessment, Pre-flight checks and practice reverse launch procedures with the ground handling Firebird Trainer. This was a useful exercise as all managed to control the small wing well in the gusty wind without risking getting airborne or dragged. This is Keith having a go, with Paul and George watching:

I had another check flight on the small Firebird F1rst wing. Conditions were soarable but still moderately turbulent with a height gain of about 50ft enabling me to get in for a top landing.

Later we had to dive for shelter from a succession of light showers that swept through - then floating the wing in the air to dry it!

An attempt to ground handle the F1rst wing in the bottom landing area proved to be a wast of time due to the unpredictable gusts so we eventually called it a day after calling ATC again to report that we had finished activities on the hill. They were most appreciative of both calls.

Martin Bates also had a soaring flight on his Skywalk Chili wing in a rare less gusty spell.