Back row:- Graham Watts, Simon Day, Phil Donovan, Stephen Lee, Chris Pearmund, Rob Glass
Front row:- Katie Ridley, June Cheong

It's late September and the summer is making a final stand, the airfield is looks inviting in the low sun as we arrive but surely it can't last. Still, it is in an optimistic mood that we dump our bags in the snug little rooms on-site. Even the tiled floors of the showers don't feel as cold as we remember them. It's back to the bar for some of us to sample our first real ale of the week, Graham pours himself a pint of one of the strange local brews with a faintly amusing name ('The Foxes T-Ale', 'Buggrit Brew' or some such), even before breaking into his 106 pack of Coke. Like myself he seems to regret this decision, as the first few mouthfuls prove rather challenging. The 3 enormous pizzas are more enticing, despite the worrying similarity between the chicken and the vegetable versions.

The next morning we flop out of our respective bunks. Yep, those tiles are still freezing. Re-emerge with a pair of ski-socks on; I knew they'd come in handy again. A tentative peak out of the curtains reveals a huge expanse of blue sky. Even as we cross to the clubhouse for breakfast things are still looking sunny, this is suspicious, it's almost too sunny.

Having reacquainted ourselves with Gordon's breakfasts (the first of many fry-ups for Rob!), we're ready for a day's flying. It's no effort to unpack the hangar on a day like this and soon polished glider canopies are glinting in the morning sun and the rumble of tractor engines can be heard.

The clouds never appear and the first day is full of quality flying, by the instructors at least! Myself (Simon), Phil, Rob, Katie, Steve, Chris and Graham were all on the last course and are glad to be getting back into the air again. June, very bravely, has come without ever having flown herself but she takes it all in her stride. When not flying, launching gliders or retrieving Graham from the other end of the field we sunbathe on tractor tyres doubling up as deckchairs. We have two instructors I haven't met before; Sid Gilmore and Claude. Sid makes an instant impression, decked out in Top Gun style flight suit and with a total inability to complete a whole fucking sentence without swearing. We later discover that the thermals cop the bulk of this verbal onslaught, though June may have learnt a few new words in the famous 'fishpond' incident later in the week!

We have fantastic weather all through the week. Once we even have to stop flying because the sun is too dazzling! The only other interruption is our attempt on the 'largest knot' world record, almost a kilometre of tangled metal winch cable keeps us busy but mostly grounded for a good few hours. None of us will ever have trouble with our shoelaces again!

All this heat gets us thinking we are on holiday and the Frisbee comes out in the evenings. Graham dazzles all with his weird and wonderful variety of throws, while Phil and Katie demonstrate a natural talent in picking up some of his tricks. The sun has clearly gone to the head of a few of the lads though as they set off on a run around the airfield in the darkness.

The course comes to an end all too soon with many of us falling agonisingly short of going solo (at least that's what we tell ourselves!) but having had an amazing week. Everyone's flying has improved hugely and lots of us have had flights lasting over an hour for the first time. Phil has got more solo soaring in than ever before and Steve always seems reluctant to come down! I have a fairly close encounter with a fence, June gives Sid a closer look at the goldfish in the local pond, Tom tests a couple of stomachs out with his legendary aerobatics and there are a good few bumpy landings all round but everyone goes home happy and in one piece! Another great course at Husband's Bosworth, cheers guys!

-Simon

Just four of us went on this end of term trip. After managing to avoid the queue for tickets entirely, and taking the, ahem, scenic route to the rides we quickly discovered that the park was relatively empty. Hardly believing our luck, we grabbed a time slot for Air and began the task of going on as many rides as possible. Highlights predictably included favourites like Nemesis (front row, twice), and Oblivion, which wasn't quite steep enough for Phil (!).

We managed to go on just about every ride worth experiencing, and at the end of the day, despite frequent breakdowns, we 'assumed the position' on the front row of Air and flew around like Superman for a couple of minutes!

All in all we had a great day. Hopefully we will take a few more people next year!

-Steve.

Only 4 of us went to this fringe event and the day didn't look promising with low cloud and rain stopping the flying programme.  We wandered round the many static displays in the hangers and the Aerospace Museum looking for good photo opportunities.

Eventually after lunch the scheduled break in the weather came and gave us bright blue skies which allowed aircraft to fly their full displays.  Highlights had to be the Jaguars and Tornado for speed and noise, plus the Harrier for flying backwards and drying the runway.  There was some tight formation aerobatics from four Jordanian Extras and the impressive sight of a Hercules flying past in wet air.  Finally the Red Arrows put on a superb display, in and out the clouds, to finish off the day.

For photos and video see  Stephen (official club photographer) Lee's website.

All in all, a cracking weeks flying!  Click for Stephen Lee's Photos. A proper writeup will appear here at the start of term.

Back Row:- Simon Day, Phil Donovan, Dylan Stuart, Scott Hemmings, Graham Watts, Chris Pearmund, Stephen Lee
Front Row:- Katie Ridley, Rachael Lear, Taliah Davis, Rob Glass

This was the first time we've run a joint trip with Loughborough and on the whole was successful.  On the Saturday all 11 of us had an Aerotow each and we almost got another round in with people choosing between A/T's or Winches.  Eight members of our group had not flown before and all seem to really enjoy it.  In the evening we socialised with the Loboro contingent and it confirmed that student drinking games are nationally standardised!

Unfortunately on the Sunday we were misted out and so didn't fly, although people amused themselves by going Quadbiking and Off-Roading.  I just hope they didn't enjoy it more than the gliding!!