The sun came out to welcome Bert back to the airfield – but this time with a TV crew accompanying him. In the middle of April we got a day normally experienced in the middle of summer (mid 20’s, sunny, inversion, no cloud).
Bert is about to be one of the stars of a programme for ITV1 called “100 year old drivers ride again” (imaginatively named follow up to “100 year old drivers“). When they found out he is also a member of the gliding club they wanted to film him in action. The crew from the production company RDF Television (Harry – Director, Ben – video, Martin – sound) arrived ahead of Bert to prepare the Puchacz by installing 4 cameras (Go Pros). One on the wing and one on the tail (thanks to Phil’s purpose made mounts) and 2 in the cockpit (fore and aft) plus a recorder secured behind the rear seat. Then Bert and I were wired for sound – just hope I didn’t make any Gordon Brown type comments. Bert is rather frail so getting into the glider was a bit of a trial but his mind and reactions are as sharp as ever. We didn’t manage to find any thermals so just 2 short flights plus we had a cable break during the ground run. Once off the launch Bert demonstrated that he hasn’t forgotten how to fly.
While all that was going on Bob B and Peter E were attending to normal club flying. With 4 trial lessons turning up on spec plus a couple of folks needing the attention of an instructor, they were kept busy. One of the TL folks had been at the club the previous Wednesday and this time she brought along donuts and her friends. Bill C was the day’s soaring god with just over an hour. Those who launched within an hour of his launch were also treated to soaring flights. Outside of the hour window it was only Chris K who managed to defy gravity (in that case for 30 minutes)
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