Geoff writes: whilst yesterday was windy, today was howling (and tomorrow is forecast even stronger, with gales of 70 mph). It was also very thermic, which added to the strong winds. Way to windy to fly, of course, so we went to the Midland Gliding Club open day. Like all gliding clubs, in Europe at least, they are suffering declining (and ageing) membership, and hoped to get more members through this. Unfortunately, whilst it was well-attended, the wind was too strong for them to take up people on taster flights, but maybe they will be able to do that later on this week or next.  Presumably numbers are declining because of a) cost, b) people just aren’t as physically active as they used to be, and c) people are more selfish, and gliding involves a lot of co-operation to get off the ground (unlike paragliding and hang gliding, which seem to attract a relatively high proportion of selfish people – though still, fortunately, a small minority).

We then went to the archery field, where it was OK to shoot, since in this wind direction it is quite protected. I badly need a new bow, more powerful, and spent most of the time chatting to people trying to work out what to buy. I’ve plenty of time to look around this week, since the winds are forecast strong for the rest of the week.

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