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Saturday 26th

A good day was anticipated and 6 private gliders rigged.  However, they sat on the ground for the first 3 hours as club gliders mostly doing circuits.  The exception was Nigel B who was the only one to soar (not once but twice).  Then Paul P launched in the club K8 and just kept going up and up.

Paul P’s progress attracting interest

That provided the trigger for the private gliders to launch.  Lots of soaring for the next 3 hours.  Carol P and Phil M claimed longest flight honours with 3:19.  Having been once round the Wantage/Devizes/Rivar triangle they decided to do it a second time but faster.  Climbs to 5,600′ were on offer and some tasty streets available.
We were pleased to welcome Ben P who turned up for a Trial Lesson and joined on the spot.  Nigel gave him a taste of soaring which included seeing his home in Hungerford from the Puchacz.
It was the last chance to see an old familiar friend on the horizon – Didcot cooling towers.  In the early hours of Sunday 3 of the towers were demolished.

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Wednesday 23rd

We had read the Lasham forecast, including Jon G who had taken the day off work based on what it promised – which ended with “Should be good for a fast 400-500km+. If it streets as well it will be epic!”.  I’m guessing the Duo Discus that appeared low nearby deploying the iron thermal would have taken issue with that summary.  Fortunately, the engine was started well away from the village.
There was a fair wind blowing NNE so maybe the ridge would deliver until the trigger temperature was reached.  Not so, circuits were the order of the day until at 14:00 Bill O launched into a better looking sky and stuck for over an hour.  This prompted a flurry of activity but only the occasional launch got some soaring.  For those who did manage to connect, climbs to 3,900′ were available and for everyone, pockets of sink of 8 down could be encountered.  Of the 36 launches only 4 managed over an hour (Rob J top dog with 1:13) and another 4 of over 20 minutes.
The folks who packed the toys away were invited to the pub to help celebrate Colin B’s significant birthday.

Footnote:  Having started this entry with a dig at the forecast I feel it only fair to say that the Lasham Weather God normally is remarkably accurate most of the time.  We benefit from not being far away and so being able to take advantage of these forecasts.

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Sunday 20th July 2014

Having finally worked out how to operate a calendar I arrived to find that the club was already operating, (thanks Phil and Richard for stepping in and getting things going whilst I slumbered on in blissful ignorance of the fact that I was on duty!), I leaped into the back of a K13 and had a great day’s soaring. Anyone who thought that the forecast was not good needs to read the Lasham forecasts more carefully because things went pretty much as it predicted with soaring conditions and moist air for most of the day and the drier air appearing some time after 15:00 giving higher cloudbase and trips to Marlborough in a K13. Selvam arrived back announcing that there were no more thermals at around 17:00 so we decided to put things away (well no one had any real enthusiasm for much more soaring anyway). I decided that we’d prove Selvam wrong so the last 4 cables produced 3 soaring flights and a training Launch Failure, last landing somewhat after 18:00. Much fun was had by all and I look forward to the head-cam view of Ken’s loop 🙂

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Wednesday 16th

There were those who looked at the forecast and decided that it wouldn’t be very good until the afternoon.  Then there were those, like Fluffy Harris, who saw there was a glider, a cable and some sky waiting – jumped into the K8 and returned almost an hour later.  Everyone who launched in the first 2 hours got plenty of soaring in (well, except when yours truly had made “special” arrangements with the winch driver).  Then the top cover, which had drifted over, cut off our thermals.  For the next 2 hours not much was on offer but a couple of folks managed to scratch out almost half an hour each.  The following half hour it got better and followed by and hour and a half of circuits.  One final half hour window in which those of us who launched worked hard at the weak thermals on offer and then back to circuits to round off the day.  I saw 2,000′ a few times but never managed any better and I only heard of one person managing to go beyond that.
A busy day with 33 launches and 20 folks flying.  Chris K took longest flight honours with over an hour in HAX.  Good news was that the brake lever had (finally) arrived from Germany which Andrew B promptly fitted and JMX made it back on line.