Author: Blogger

“If this is winter flying, bring it on” summed up the flying for the fortunate few who turned up.  Someone else said “return of the summer” and was promptly corrected to remove the word “return”.  They say a picture is worth a thousand words so here is a picture of the launch point.

First launch of the day was 50% longer than the previous days longest flight and the second one was 8 times longer.  Half a dozen flights of around and hour and more.  Early launches (around midday) had to work hard to use the weak broken lift to get to cloudbase at just over 2,000′ but within a couple of hours pilots were getting climbs of 4+ knots up to 3,700. 
Duty ab-initio Selvam M kept duty instructor Tim R busy and the 2 TLs and one returning TL were looked after by Peter E and Richard D.  Despite Tim’s onset of vertigo (what else would account for Selam’s failure to get to the top of some launches) we clocked up 10:41 flying time off 20 launches.

Hive of activity in the morning with club gliders being dragged to the far end of the field and 4 private glider being rigged.  Clear blue sky but the possibility of thermal activity at some point, northerly straight down the strip offering high launches but not enough of it to bring the ridge to life.  Visibility was exceptional.
K8 back on-line so I test flew it with a 2,000′ launch and put Andrew B’s repair to the tailplane through its paces.  At midday, just as the first hints of thermal activity appeared, the Janus had made it’s way to the front of the grid (yes, we had a queue for launches) and a black car appears.  Out steps the CFI, already wearing his parachute, steps into the caravan to sign himself off on the flying list, then straight into the Janus and does the first soaring flight of the day – 21 minutes.  Chris, contain yourself as Carol insists the flight was 22:15 because that’s what the LNAV said.  I was even dragged over to verify this.  Your choice whether to go with the log or the LNAV.  Doesn’t really matter as later Carol and Phil did a 1:40 flight and at 16:30 (after a mass landing and it looked as if the thermic part of the day was at an end) they did a 23 minute “circuit”. Not the longest flights of the day though.  Trevor G topped this with a 1:53 flight but the soaring god of the day was Colin B with 2:07.
Jon G converted to the Vega which he then soared off a launch at 17:00.  I was kept busy with annual checks (yup, that time has come back round) but indulged myself by ending the day taking the 52nd launch. Few feet short of the 2,000 this time and a gentle 15 minute drift to earth with the lengthening shadows.

Over17 hours flown off 52 launches.  21 members flew using 8 gliders over 7 hours. A remarkable day for this time of year.  The last time we flew over 50 launches was in June 2011 and the previous highest launch count in October was in 2007 when we did 43

First flying day of the club’s new year.  We weren’t able to match the eternity that is 22 minutes but 7 (of the 21 flights) did make it to double digits.  Mainly westerly but the wind did shift a little more southerly and launches of just over 2,000′ (in the K13’s, K8 was the hangar queen) were on offer.  Rob J set the target to beat of 14 minutes which Peter M matched a couple of launches later.  Paul Mc did a great job keeping the Puchacz launching as everyone else wanted the higher launches provided by the K13’s.  We were pleased to welcome Charles Mc as our newest member.

I was vainly looking to see if I had a IGC ranking this year. (Of course I don’t). But came across this:

http://igcrankings.fai.org/index_womens.php?rowstodisplay=20

Rather good and many congratulations!
Very well deserved.

I can personally vouch for  Liz’s abilitiy to fly a glider as I recently had the misfortune to fly with Liz and she made a horrible day seem like a pleasant nightmare rather than the end of the world. A real masterclass on how not to hit the ground on a day that was almost impossible (the bit we went anyway).
Well done Liz!!!