Originally Posted by
treadigraph
Interesting to see 615VGS at Kenley are flying midweek, they have been busy both yesterday and today (definitely Vikings and not Surrey Hills GC's gliders...) Presume some kind of half term camp? I recall they used to fly Wednesday evenings in the summer...
Maybe they've managed to get enough support for an early summer course; in some parts of Surrey and SE London it's half term holiday.
Years ago ('60s) at Halton and Bovingdon we would fly evenings tue/wed/thu during the light summer evenings.
I can remember launching from Halton in a Sedbergh (solo) as it was starting to get dark about 9.30 pm. I got about 1500ft off the launch then floated around in still air for about 10 minutes until the time came for me to return however as I descended and turned final, I found it had got so dark (out in the countryside and no surrounding street lights etc) I couldn't see the surface in order to judge my height properly so I shut the spoilers and simply 'felt' for the ground until the wheel touched down.
Then came the problem of the retrieve crew finding me somewhere in the middle of an unlit grass airfield at night!!