Author: Blogger

Good call on Colin’s part to move wet Wednesday to thermic Thursday.  That said, the sky looked good but the thermals proved elusive with only a couple of folks managing around an hour and Justin B comfortably getting his 2 hour flight in the bag (comfortable as in – plenty of time in hand).  The Red Arrows passed between us and Newbury several times in the day kept us to the west side of the airfield.  With lots of drift on offer in a fair westerly breeze this limited our options to drift with a thermal.  We were reward with a puff of smoke from the Arrows (unfortunately, I missed it).
The rumour that one of the qualifications for being a CFI is to have eyes in the back of your head (and elsewhere) seemed to be confirmed when Colin received a text from our esteemed CFI enquiring who was flying the club’s Vega over Burbage.
Near the end of the day a passing glider popped out his get-me-home turbo and fired it up low over Shalbourne.  Bob B said to me “I hope no one in the village thinks that’s anything to do with us”.  Shortly afterwards I had to head home and as I was about to pull onto the road when a Chelsea Tractor turned in to the opening to the field.  I stopped to advise the driver how to proceed safely to the launch point and discovered he had come to check that we hadn’t started flying powered aircraft.  A kinda variation on a Neighbourhood Watch scheme?

Colin “honest guv, it just came off in my hand” Baines flying the Shalbourne simulator.  Note the realistic airbrake lever.

The last day of spring was one of those days where it tried to be soarable but it just wasnt really, by which i mean it was and we did but climbs were weak and unreliable. Colin, Phil’n’Carol and Richard rigged and enjoyed some soaring as did the K13 and Vega to some extent.

The first day of summer was much better, it started off quite tricky locally with initial overdevelopment and lowish cloudbase but as morning turned to mid afternoon the conditions got good indeed (although one member was heard to comment that 5000ft cloudbase and climbs at 5kts weren’t inspiring him). I flew to Bicester and back to hand over to Jim who did the same, gliding back 53km from north of Oxford.. Phil’n’Carol flew Bic, Ban, Birdlip and Chris flew most of that, missing out the yucky bit by Birdlip. Ken’n’Bill in the Duo flew Keevil, Didcot. The club fleet were kept busy and soaring. Nice day.

Congrats to Liz who won the regionals.

Sadly, continuous light rain kept the toys inside. However, the monthly guillotine checks were done under the winch shelter. The swallows are doing their ‘thing’ in the hangar.

A mini one man expedition to visit the Dumfries and District Gliding club on Sunday 18th.  This club is decidedly off-the-beaten-track – about 6 miles from the nearest (small) town, most of which is along a single track road, you come to a sign for the club

Entrance to the airfield – only 1 mile to go along the track

On arrival the winch was out and running so that looked promising.  Turns out I was only the second person to appear so it was time to retire to the club house and drink tea until others arrived. 

Slowly others arrived until we had enough (just) to operate but the amount of wind was enough to dampen sufficient enthusiasm to commit aviation.

View from the runway

The club has been through a difficult period since the MOD visited in 2011 and ran large vehicles on the runway and ripped it up so much that it’s only recently that the runway is once again useable.  A small club to start with but the effect of the runway problems was to halve the membership.  A tough time but the hard core of members are ready to rebuild the club.  At the moment Sunday is the main day the members gather.  A club worth visiting and supporting.  The Galloway region is something special with spectacular scenery around every corner and such quiet roads (I saw 6 cars and 1 motorbike in my 20 mile trip to the club).